Bamboo

All I wanted for Mother's Day was some more bamboo, so I could continue my building project out in the garden.



I have felt like "death-warmed-over" for the past day and a half, since I already had a bad cold when I stayed out working in the garden too long yesterday without a hat. The resulting sunburn and dehydration have made me feel so much worse, and I am now finding it hard to speak. The bamboo cutting mission couldn't be delayed until another day,though, because DH leaves for archeology field school in the morning and will be gone for most of the next 6 weeks (we need him to get into the locked area where the bamboo grows).



Blaze was willing to help by trimming the little branches from the bamboo, as long as he didn't have to walk in the tall weeds. On our previous trip to get bamboo, Blaze had ended up covered with chigger bites when he was sitting in the tall weeds. He never said anything about being bit, so the next day when I noticed his stomach was covered with raised, red bumps, I thought he was coming down with something and we ended up at the doctor's office.



I've continued to work on the trellis and I've also started building I little bamboo shelter, where we'll be able to sit in the shade.



Many plants were affected by the unusually cold temperatures this past winter. The bamboo this year is not a strong as it's been in past years and I'm blaming that on the weather. The banana trees really suffered, as well. There used to be a grove of bananas in the center of the student gardens, but they were all plowed down, when it was believed that they had all been killed by the cold. The roots and stalks of the dead plants were all thrown into a pile together, at the edge of the woods, and now each chunk is growing a new banana tree. I have transplanted two of the new little trees into our garden and they are growing very quickly.