Building a Bamboo Farm
Using Permaculture Principles in Bamboo AgroForestry
originally printed in Permaculture the Earth
"The form, foliage and bloom of the bamboo give the most beautiful effects in the landscape, especially when grouped with tree forms. They are usually cultivated in small clumps about dwellings in places not otherwise readily utilized...Tall slender graceful bamboos clustered along the way and everywhere threw wonderful beauty into the landscape...It would seem that the time must come when some of the many forms of bamboo will be introduced and largely grown in many parts of this (the U.S.) country."--F.H. King, Farmers of Forty Centuries: Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and Japan, 1911
When I speak of "building" a bamboo farm, I imply a process of design. Things that are built are interconnected. Bamboo lends itself to human built landscapes for a variety of reasons on which I will further elaborate. Planting bamboo as if it were a row crop--like corn--ignores the true fractile nature of bamboo grove patterning. Bamboo thrives through socialization with humans as well as it's indigenous association with a myriad of neighborly tree species in an agroforestry complex. Thus I introduce conceptual themes of design by first smashing the paradigm of conventional agricultural practices. We will then build a bamboo farm, as if we were architects of the sacred. I speak of a new ecology for the American farmscape. In the temperate regions of the U.S., where it may be appropriate, bamboo will be a key component in this agricultural restoration.
In the fall of 1995, Bamboo People decided to design and install a Bamboo Research Station, which would model permaculture concepts in design, further research on varietal trials and yields specific to the Pacific Northwest, to grow bamboo as an agricultural crop and create a body of first-hand knowledge which we could offer to those farmers and landholders who may be interested in planting bamboo on their properties. A careful accounting of the costs for installing and maintaining bamboo as an agricultural crop would be of great value, as data for bamboo in North American agriculture is virtually non existent. I chose the world "station" to honor those geographical locations in the U.S. where many of our important bamboo species were first introduced in the early part of the 20th Century. We would strive to carry on the work of bamboo pioneers like F.A. McClure, David Fairchild, David Bisset, and Robert Young, etc. in places like Savannah, GA, Avery Island, Louisana, and Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.