March Garden Journal

Now that the rains subsided, this morning was this beautiful misty blanket that the early morning sun was trying to burn a hole through.

you can read about our modern day deluge experience in my recent 7 posts here:
@bigorna1/endless-monsoon-series

just across the road from us, this patch of land is over grazed and over tilled. water tends to sit on top due to compaction damage.
when tilled, it is worked top to bottom rather than "on contour", what makes grooves that later channel the water straight down hill instead of absorbing it.

This post was trying to come out but life and the non stop rains kept on getting in the way.
today, finally, with drier weather and better light conditions, I walked all around the farm, checking each and every Bamboo plant for the so well awaited spring shoots.
most plants did not disappoint me and are showing first signs of growth.
following is a photographic report.

• Pleioblastus linearis:

• Phyllostachys Viridis:

• Bambusa Textilis ´Gracilis´:

• Phyllosthacys Edulis:
  note how the new shoot is way thicker then the existing culms ! this is how bamboo grows.

• Phyllostachys Bambusoides:

• Phyllostachys Nigra:

• Pseudosasa Japonica (Metake):

• Fargesia Robusta ´Pingwu´:

• Fargesia Robusta ´Campbell´:

• Phyllostachys Nigra ´Henonis´:
  this is a flowering bamboo and it expands large amounts of its energy in flowering and then seeding.
  you can see that the new growth is not exactly a classic "shoot" but rather branches coming up directly from pre existing rhizomes.

• Bambusa Multiplex:

This for me is all very exciting, since in our climate the bamboo plants push up new shoots twice a year, in early spring and than in the fall.
a few varieties are still falling behind, like the Bambusa Oldhamii, one of my favorites that sadly suffers here due to our frosts. another, Phyllostachys Vivax, that brings out shoots only once a year, but with a growth rate of 11cm. every 24 hours, measured. I will dedicate a special post to it when this happens !

thank you for stopping by 🙏
wishing you all good gardening for the month of March and a beautiful spring 🌱🌧️🌞

• p.s. I am very proud of myself for not forgetting to include this beautiful new footer that I only got yesterday !
  and not only that, it has the bamboo on it 🌱 !!