In both Birmingham and Montgomery, I have helped keep the Roundup company in the black. I have sprayed enough roundup to kill bamboo (and kudzu) up on 16th Avenue South in Birmingham and here in the Garden District to qualify as a black belt in the fine art of bambooicide.
So now comes some con artist trying to sell Alabama's Black Belt on the idea of intentionally planting bamboo as a crop.
Note that in this article there is NO mention of what to do when the crop planting experiment is over.
Now picture the entire black belt....All of those rural counties with rich lovely soil...covered completely with 100 foot tall, 18 inch diameter bamboo stalks! Picture the poor folks who worked all their lives to keep up a nice farmhouse with a few dozen acres only to have it invaded by bamboo, tearing apart foundations, taking over fields and playgrounds, backyard gardens and even football fields!!!!!
Think before you plant. What price sanity?
Great entry, Tim! You had me laughing (though I genuinely share your concerns)! A fellow up here in Madison County has 'boo (now that I've written it, I recollect that's slang for marijuana) growing in his farm place. And there's another fellow nearby the Flint River who also has a large stand of it. I've actually eaten some of the 'bullets' - young, tender shoots.
ReplyDeleteBamboo covering football fields!
ReplyDeleteWe can't have that! This is Alabama! Those fields are sacred!
Boo is slang for marijuana? Hmm never heard that one. I learn something new every day :)
ReplyDeleteLoretta, you can ask Boo Radley of "To Kill a Mockingbird" fame.
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