I've heard of using cement barrier and a copper barrier. Copper is crazy expensive right now tho.

I built my cement wall down 24", but some will say 36". They also have Bamboo barrier a flexible polythelene barrier.. Whatever they say,, don't cut corners. I think you should get tyour neighbor to pay for your wall. They have suits about this issue going to court and winning. I am amazed that people plant bamboo for privacy and don't put barriers in to keep the plants from running and damaging other peoples yards. google bamboo barriers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Killing bamboo.

you can also use thick plastic barriers, 2-3 feet deep.

Bamboo has it's uses for certain homeowners. Six years ago, I was dropping my son of at my ex's house. I noticed that he was putting running bamboo along his foundation, under a bay type window, along the length of his tiny front yard. He lives in coastal Southern California. I tried to warn him that planting running bamboo in an area that makes plants grow HUGE and AGGRESSIVE (even if they normally aren't) was an enormous mistake. The reason we got divorced was mostly his arrogance. I know it's petty of me and I do feel a bit guilty and smug at the same time, but now I'm waiting for it to come up through his wall/living room floor. Last I heard he was trying to kill it unsuccessfully AFTER it was well established.
It's too bad your neighbor didn't get the same warning about running bamboo. It's not unreasonable to have them share the cost of control.

There was recently a post on this subject on the Okla. Forum. People can get pretty defensive about bamboo and take it personally. I am 100% against planting uncontained running bamboo in a neighborhood. Why that causes anger among some is beyond me, seems the reason why its an unneighborly thing to do is obvious. We have freedom to do as we please but when it adversely affects others, shouldn't there be some regulation?

Some are told they can control it to the size they want by just mowing what they don't want. (its so darned easy....) This is Horse S--t.

I have a friend who is battling it by treating the soil with highly acidic vinegar he ordered on line. He has been at it for three years now and still fighting it. He mows, cuts new ones, uses the vinegar, pulls long roots that tear up his landscape, does backbreaking digging and hopes to one day get rid of it. Once it really gets firmly established, it seems almost impossible to eradicate and the neighbors are forced to spend a lot of money and time to get rid of it or else learn to like it.

I wouldn't feel too bad about feeling smug concerning the ex husband, his neighbors ought to tar and feather him. Or, in keeping with the season, boil him in his own pudding and bury him with a stake of holly in his heart (or maybe bamboo) People more times than not DO know the warnings and plant it anyway "because its so pretty" or for "privacy" and no regard for the neighbors. Thats when I see red.

thanks for all your help
but getting to get my neighbor to help is out of the question,he believes he owns the street. and if it makes him mad that i will be messing with his bamboo i think it just made my day.his bamboo goes all the way down the side of our property about 300 feet. BE WATCHING JUDGE JUDY see you there

I doubt the bamboo will spread at my ex's house. His front is a raised and surrounded by a brick wall (the footing will slow the bamboo). Also there are driveways on both sides. If it does find it's way into thier yard he will be forced to pay for it. That's how it is in CA.

So there goes 1/2 your kids college fund if the neighbors sue?

You have to be careful and not impose what you do on others. It's very crowded so people really have to work on respecting others to avoid the controversy that is more likely in constant close contact with others. For example "being PC" is not really the high moral road Californians make it out to be. It's conflict avoidance. Getting sued is bad, but not as bad as starting conflict in a city famous for violence. Think of Japan. A city so crowded it makes LA look rural. In Japan you can get sued for blocking someone's view or access to sunlight. People have more freedoms in more open places. And to answer your question the person wouldn't lose a night's sleep taking your kid's college fund if you let bamboo run amok, costing time, money and aggrevation.

Legal action should always be considered only as a last resort. But, the expense involved in dealing with damage done by a neighbor is not to be taken lightly either.

Consideration is key to this issue. It seems there is a serious lack of it when a person plants something invasive like this with no thought to others. This is a plant that can do considerable property damage.

If you want your neighbors to hate you, plant something that will be guaranteed to invade their yard while you sit on your honkers and do nothing to control it letting them shoulder the financial responsibility and back breaking work. It won't matter how nice you are or how much their kids need college. Its beside the point and the one thing has nothing to do with the other.

Some plants have been imported into this country because they are beautiful. Unfortunately, they cause serious problems here in certain situations. I don't think anyone would be very sympathetic if I wrote in saying I was being criticized by "mean" neighbors for planting Japanese Knotweed all over my yard. (boo-hoo) :( !!

I know I could be fined (if caught) for growing or selling Purple Loosestrife because I know a woman who was. So then, why is it a bad thing to impose some restrictions on running bamboo? Why would it be out of line to regulate by law that a barrier must be dug to specific code by anyone who plants running bamboo in a neighborhood and keep it in check or else suffer legal consequences? I believe such a regulation would solve a lot of problems, expense and grief down the road and put the responsibility where it belongs, with the person planting it, not the neighbors fighting it.

It is not a plant for lazy, infirm, distracted or old gardeners. It definitely should come with a warning label. When I lived in Hawaii, no one planted Bamboo except for newly arrived white people. Sometimes one would see clump bamboo. One saw acres of wild bamboo and some of the large botanical gardens had bamboo in peoples yards but never running bamboo.. I lived next to a white preacher from the mainland that planted it. And he was always fighting it. It did not take long to have him swearing at it. he did back up to a forest reserve so the only neighbor was me.

But I must admit that I do have fond memories of it. Some really conflicting feelings about it.

Maybe the neighbor is infirm or old, what then? I read a story like that, poor woman had it growing up into closed-in back porch threatening her home and she was asking how to get rid of it before it completely took over her house. She was on social security and lived alone. What happens in a case like that?

I think it should be regulated and there should be fines to cover property damage to those it affects adversely.

Only white people? What is with these white people anyway? Don't they know no better? I don't care he it IS a preacher. He shouldn't be planting that damn running bamboo.

I just had to laugh at this. That was funny!

easy catusgarden, its christmas time and people cant help if there ignorant. i didnt get why it had to be white people and not just people

Trust me, this person is far from ignorant and definitely not bigoted. I am just razzing her. Its our tasteless brand of humor. Me, I'm the self proclaimed bigot because I hate unrestricted running bamboo whether its black or golden. I make no excuses or apologies about it and can be downright obnoxious on the subject if I get irritated enough. I nearly got tarred and feathered on the Okie site on this subject. They would probably kill me dead on the Bamboo forum.

The true ignorance is from the people who plant it next door to you without a barrier like that nice guy you live next to.

I am probably over doing it here but I do want to clarify this. The term "White Man's Plant" was coined by Native Americans to describe new species brought in by the European settlers. Many of our most noxious weeds were brought into the Americas via Europeans. More times than not, there was no respect for the indigenous ecosystem. Many plants were beneficial, many are not. Some have become ecological disasters.

So when a person who loves native plants and respects the environment (such as Wantanamara) uses the term "White Man" or "White People"this is what is being referred to. I automatically understood she was referring to a non indigenous plant introduction into a new environment where it would run rampant because of optimum growing conditions. Indigenous people are often much more aware of this problem than immigrants. Immigrants can be unwittingly destructive and often are.

Of course, in this case, its an Asian plant, not European.

Actually, let me explain my comment. I apologize if I offended anyone. I am white and if you have ever been to Hawaii you will know that political correctness does not reign there and everyone makes fun of the Haole , even the Haoles (white people). I guess I slipped back into that way of talking without thinking. Hawaii is the equal opurtunity state. They razz everyone equally, but haoles more. People do not take it to heart.

On the windward side of Oahu (read wet, overgrown, rich volcanic soil) there are mostly hawaiians, Tongans, Samoans,Chinese and a few newly arrived Caucasians that usually would do things like plant bamboo, split leafed philodendron and Devil Plant (not Marijuana but a tree swallowing tropical treasured in north american living rooms but despised in Hauula). They would then move on when the plant took over and they tired of going native in Hauula, or a better job opened up elsewhere, leaving their problem.

I moved into a house in Hauula as a "newly arrived white person" replacing a newly arrived white person that had gone back to the mainland (1973). First day I was there, my nice but aggressive Hawaiian neighbor comes over and takes one look at my mountain apple covered in Devil weed and asks if she could pull down the devil weed. No Hello or anything. I said yes, hoping to make points with the neighbors and the plant looked way too happy, and she then introduces herself and gets a ladder and her husbands truck and 2 machetes. One for her and one for me and we go after my plants. She explained the phenomena of the out of control plants and how to wail away at plants with machettes while on extension ladders with murder in ones heart. Ahhhh, gardening in a jungle. I had a six' clump growing out of the end of an eve of my roof. This stuff was taking off. She said that my tree was really struggling and would be dead soon if not cared for. It was a tall and old tree.

We then took on the split leaf philodendron a month later. She had been chomping at the bit to control this problem from the day they had been planted. One palm tree had already been killed by the philodendron and they were climbing another and headed for the macadamia. She had me swearing at haoles before long with my knife swinging and chopping. She was tired of dealing with it on her side of the border. I made a great friend that day. My other neighbor on my other side had the Bamboo.

She made me realize that I should be very wary about what I planted. Some plants were not polite and as a visiter, I was a stranger in this land and should look at what people who had lived there a long time to see what were good plants to plant. I replaced the philodendron with a bank of aloes of different types.

It is not really a matter of race but of being a visitor or a newbie in a strange land. I learned about the room that some plants need.

I knew what you meant and that it was not a slur.

k

I think it is a very good illustration of why it is good to check before you plant and have respect for the wisdom of the indigenous people and environment. These decisions sometimes have consequences down the road that people do not foresee.

There are at least two bamboos that are native to North America and the native Indians used it extensively for tools, shelter, traps, etc.

I'm not sure what size the bamboo is in your neighbours yard, but a larger growing variety can send rhizomes down to 30 inches, or more, but usually the rhizomes stay within the top 12 inches of soil unless the plant is crowded.

I've used the plastic bamboo barrier sold at bamboo nurseries, but it has failed, but that could be from being installed verically instead of at an angle.

Your neighbour needs to plant a clumping variety which can be controlled easily if it ever spread outside of it's given area. Running bamboos can be hard to control if it is let to grow unchecked. If they do a rhizome pruning once or twice a year, the running bamboo would be kept in it's place.

Kt

Wow, I thought getting rid of bermuda was bad-:)