One homeowner kept a detailed photo journal when he made the Herculean effort to remove one of the toughest invasive plants from his yard: bamboo.
"I wanted to share with you our chronicle of taking out bamboo with a three-man crew fueled by hatred, $.99 Aldi energy drinks, and deli sandwiches," he explained in his Reddit post.
The first photos show the thicket of bamboo taking up a whole side of the yard. "The bamboo was [planted] about 15 years ago in an 8-foot clump. It had since grown into a forest," said the original poster.
Not only was the bamboo taking up space, but it was growing aggressively. "The roots were spreading into the grass and sweeping down into the retaining wall and wanting to advance under the driveway," said the original poster.
So he started cutting. "With my 3" loppers, I cut down all the bamboo to the stumps," he said. "We found trees that we had no idea existed in our backyard."
After that, he borrowed a wood chipper for the stalks. "We managed to make mulch out of about half of the bamboo, but had to leave the bigger stuff since it was just too hardy for the chipper to claw through. I posted pictures on Facebook Marketplace saying 'Free Bamboo' and got mobbed from people clamoring to get to it first."
But the Redditor had yet to tackle the toughest part of the bamboo plant: the roots.
"Doing this with a pickax SUCKED," said the original poster. "Then I hit the heart. No matter how hard I swung, the pickax would just bounce off the mat. It felt like I was hitting a steel pole with a wooden bat."
In the end, he had to rent a small excavator to finish the job — and even then, it wasn't easy. "The bamboo was coming up but not without a fight," he said. "The bamboo roots … were about an inch thick and would try to fling me off the excavator if I was too rambunctious on the hydraulics."
One photo shows the incredible pile of roots the homeowner excavated. "A wall of stumps, rhizomes, and roots. Twenty cubic yards of it," the original poster said. "We tripled our backyard space."
Commenters were impressed to see so much bamboo removed. "Seriously heroic work, OP," said one user.
Other Redditors swear by vinegar for bamboo removal.
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