Bamboo Part Two

One of the primary functions of this blog (besides allowing you to generate witty comments) is to act as my memory . . . I know how a fairly accurate timeline of my life stretching back over a decade, including the many landscaping projects I've done along my back fence line . . . for posterity, here's a quick history and an update of my newest endeavor:

1) back in 2011, I tore down a rotted wooden fence that was engulfed by our neighbor's out of control ivy and weeds and planted some arborvitae along our the back property line . . . I also diplomatically mollified some neighborly conflict, despite having feelings of violence;

2) in 2013, the arborvitae turned brown so I transplanted them and gave a few to my friend Dom . . . they all rebounded, but obviously, my back property line was not conducive to growing arborvitae;

3) later that summer, we had a fence put in and I planted some clumping bamboo: fargesia rufa . . . it's done quite well, as you can see in the photo;

4) all the while, I might have been pilfering large stones from the park, to outline the mulch beds:

5) now I've started work on the side fence line-- why I didn't do this ten years ago is beyond me-- but I've just planted two lovely fargesia nitida plants . . . I got them from Barton Nursery for 49.95 apiece, which is pretty cheap for larger bamboo plants . . . this is the description on the internet:

Fargesia nitida 'Jiuzhaigou'

A highly ornamental, non-invasive, clumping bamboo with finely textured foliage and striking red canes that age to yellow. 

here's one:

and here's the other . . .

6) before I could get them in the ground, I had to move a bunch of rocks-- my past self screwed me on that one-- and dig a couple large holes; it took 19 bags of topsoil to fill these holes, plus I threw down some back mulch . . . I am very very sore from doing this labor in the humidity, it always astounds me how much harder yardwork is than organized exercise . . . I still have to move all the rocks between the two plants, put down a bunch more topsoil and plant one more bamboo clump . . . but there's obviously no rush, as I'll be working on this fence line until I move or die, whichever comes first.