Cleaning the Canebrake

   Most folks do not realize the work involved in growing bamboo.  While it looks nice when it is healthy and green, it can become quite unsightly if a freeze or storm damages the canes.  Our "canebrake" is actually bamboo.  Thankfully, we have the clumping sort and not the runners.  The clumpers simply expand outward in a larger clump each year.  There are no shoots coming up twenty or thirty feet from the original source.  Still, that clump can become a mess if not cleaned.

  Our canebrake is a good twenty feet across with the bamboo reaching upwards of 40 feet.  Over the past few years, we have had numerous storms in the fall and a few (very few) good freezes.  All of that was just enough to kill a good many of the original canes in the middle of the clump.  The new shoots were being forced to grow at odd angles since the old dead canes were falling atop them.  It was a MESS!

  Yesterday, Son decided it was time to "clean" the canebrake.  I was cutting grass when I saw him pulling out the dead canes.  The mower was stopped and I lent a hand with the chore.  He and I worked for several hours and pulled over 250 dead canes from the back section of the canebrake.  We finally had to stop.  Both of us were itching from the fibers being sifted down on us from the dead bamboo.  We are only about half finished.  Tomorrow, we will start again and hopefully get the chore completed.  It is not something for the squeamish as we have already found some pretty huge spiders, a couple of snakes, a rat nest, fire ants and some unidentified critters.  The canebrake will look mighty fine once cleared, though!