Interesting Video about Bamboo

Who knows what?

I surmise that there are three groups of people in relation to bamboo

Group 1 - Knows little or nothing about bamboo, and what little they know is negative, perhaps about bamboo growing rampant in a family member's garden or similar.
Group 2 - Who have some knowledge, limited, but are more aware about bamboo (the plant or grass) and can name a small number of items made from it.  This group usually has no knowledge of bamboo fabric, or the scientific data about its environmental advantages over timber.
Group 3 - This is a small group but they have already discovered the benefits of bamboo items - some know of the benefits of using bamboo in the home and do so with a wide variety of products made of bamboo, some swear by the value of bamboo sheets, towels and other household items, and some are extremely passionate about bamboo.

I have been extremely pleased that I have been able to educate many people already in the short space of time that I have been researching bamboo, and I know already that some are purchasing bamboo fabric towels and sheets.  I am happy to recommend PureZone for these items.

When in Adelaide recently speaking with my sister about my research, she looked at me askance as she had little knowledge of the range of items available, and she started to make fun of me in a manner that was disbelieving of what I told her.

Bamboo fabric 'puff' for the bathroom

I visited PureZone at DFO near the Adelaide Airport and bought her a towel and teatowels and presented them to her as I was about to leave for Brisbane.  She felt the fabric, and her expression said it all.  She was already impressed and keen to find out how they felt in use.

I await her response with enthusiasm.  I am sure she will love them.

I was surprised to find a guy - a single (or at least he is now) bloke, who was a great advocate for bamboo towels and sheets.  "Wouldn't use anything else."  I've known him for years and he was not one that I would have thought would have spoken enthusiastically about such things.

I continue to educate, and research.

How is bamboo fabric made?

I have been asked this question many times, and to be honest I didn't know. I have heard comments that chemicals are used in the process - as they are with other fabrics, cotton, viscose, hemp, linen etc.  Anyway, I found several articles which help to explain the process.

One of websites with information is of course Wikipedia.  Click here to read the entry.

I found another site where there is a list of fashion designers, who are now using bamboo fabric in their fashions.  This list included some I did not know, but Oscar de la Renta was one I did.  Check here for a very interesting article about bamboo fabric and its manufacture, from the Organic Clothing Blog.

Please read the full article on the Organic Clothing Blog, but I take the liberty of adding this information that was on the site.

• Bamboo grows rapidly and naturally without any pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers.
• Bamboo clothing (both mechanically and chemically manufactured) is 100% biodegradable and can be completely decomposed in the soil by micro-organisms and sunlight without decomposing into any pollutants such as methane gas which is commonly produced as a by-product of decomposition in landfills and dumps.
• Growing bamboo improves soil quality and helps rebuild eroded soil. The extensive root system of bamboo holds soil together, prevents soil erosion, and retains water in the watershed.
• Bamboo grows naturally without the need for agricultural tending and large diesel exhaust-spewing tractors to plant seeds and cultivate the soil.
• Bamboo plantations are large factories for photosynthesis which reduces greenhouse gases. Bamboo plants absorb about 5 times the amount of carbon dioxide (a primary greenhouse gas) and produces about 35% more oxygen than an equivalent stand of trees.
• Bamboo fabrics and clothing can be manufactured and produced without any chemical additives although eco-certification such as Oeko-Tex is necessary to insure that the manufacturing and finishing processes are healthy.
• Currently, there are no known genetically modified organisms (GMO) variants of bamboo. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Yes, I agree - that I hope genetically modified is not a term that we come to know as associated with bamboo.

Readers' Feedback Welcome

Actually I would love to hear from anyone about their experiences with bamboo products.  Negative or Positive.

I hear stories from people whose family members have had bamboo growing rampantly - some even part of the mean killing machine in an effort to get the 'weed' removed from the garden.  That is of course by the sounds of the stories, the 'running' bamboo, which sends rhizomes just under the surface of the soil in all directions.  The rhizomes can be a bit difficult to remove - even leaving a little bit will be enough for the plant to regenerate.

I must say, apart from 'liking' the bamboo plant, I didn't take much notice of it until my discovery of bamboo undies.  I'm off to get some more this week - 30% off ladies underwear at Target in the next couple of days.  Whoo hoo!  A bargain!!

Any comments, questions, stories?  Use the comment box.  All spam, unwanted material is moderated and deleted.  So don't bother putting advertisements for anything in the comments - I'll delete it, however, if you have some bamboo products for sale, let me know.  I may be interested in featuring them in this blog.

Bamboo Sheets

I felt rather guilty that I had not tried bed sheets made from bamboo.  I did buy some from PureZone a few weeks ago, but planned to use them when I returned to the house sit after my jaunt to Bali, but my box of linen is in the shipping container, and with the heavy rains and flooding, I chose to forget collecting those items for the moment.  The unopened pack with queen size bed bamboo bed sheets, and two pillow cases was at the house sit where I am staying for a week before my travels.

I had intended to rinse the sheets before I used them but with continual heavy rains here in Brisbane, that was not an option, so I opened the pack, and put them straight onto the bed.  I fell in love with them immediately - the feel of them is unlike any bed sheet I have touched before, and I was looking forward to climbing into bed last night.

And so it was, late last night after a few chores were done, and I'd almost fallen asleep in front of the tennis I climbed between my new bamboo sheets. Honestly, they are wonderful.  Whether it was the sheets or the fact that I was back in a familiar bed, or that I was pretty tired, but I slept fitfully.  I think I am falling in love - with my bamboo sheets.

Is this a native bamboo?

Is this bamboo native to Australia?  I don't know, so I will have to check with someone who knows more about it than me.  This bamboo was growing in Dongara, Western Australia.  It seems to be a 'running bamboo' and has spread throughout this particular vacant lot.

I saw quite a lot of bamboo around some parts of WA - and it appeared to be a similar (or the same) variety.  There was some around parts of Perth.  I note that there are quite a few bamboo nurseries in WA too.

I was interested too to see bamboo as a feature in the foyer/atrium of the Burswood Casino in Perth. (see photos below)

My new bamboo sheets.

I visited DFO last week near the Brisbane Airport to see if there were any bamboo products available there. I was interested in what Adairs had, as a friend told me he bought bamboo sheets from one of their stores.  The DFO store was the closest store to me and I was taking someone to the airport, so it seemed the thing to do.

Adairs do stock some bamboo products, but on the day did not have what I wanted. As I walked out of Adairs I saw another opposite that sold bed linen etc, so I called in there.

Wow, what at pleasant surprise!!!  The store is PureZone - and they have a wide range of products that are more environmentally friendly than one usually sees in stores.

I purchased a bath towel and some tea towels - all made with bamboo.  Fantastic products.  I also ordered a queensize bed sheet set, which I have since picked up, and bought more tea towels for gifts.

I also called into the Sheridan store - but the lady there told me that they had no bamboo products in their store.  Perhaps at one of their bigger stores she suggested.

Teatowel made of Bamboo from PureZone.

I can recommend Adairs, and PureZone for bamboo sheets, towels, and tea towels.

Growing Bamboo

There is quite a stigma in Australia about bamboo.  It seems many people have a fear of growing this grass. So many stories about rampant uncontrollable bamboo growth, and digging it out and trying (often in vain it appears) to remove it from one's garden.

I don't know how it happened, but it appears that the most 'popular' bamboo grown over the years is the running bamboo - that, especially when it finds itself in a suitable place to grow, runs rampant and infiltrates gardens and area where it was not wanted.

Few people I speak with have heard of 'clumping' bamboo - that bamboo which grows in clumps and while it can increase the number of 'poles' in the plant, if it is grown with adequate space, it should not cause a problem.

Clearly one needs to chat with someone familiar with bamboo growing to determine the correct type of plant to grow.

There are a number of books on bamboo growing too - available from libraries, or from nurseries featuring bamboo.

I can recommend The Bamboo Handbook, written by Durnford Dart, who is regarded as Australia's Mr Bamboo, and whose bamboo farm is at Belli Park, on the road between Eumundi and Kenilworth, Queensland.

There is a list of bamboo nurseries from the Bamboo Society of Australia website.

Durnford Dart's book is available through Amazon. com

The book - laying on my bamboo towel.

I've never grown it!

I am an inveterate gardener, but have never had a bamboo plant in any of the gardens that I have tended in my travels - living in various states of Australia and overseas, though I do recall at one stage pulling out a rampant bamboo plant in one of the houses.  Somewhere.  I can't recall where exactly, but at that time I probably had little information about it - regarded it as a terrible weed (it is a grass, after all!), and that was that.

However, on reflection, I do know that I have run my fingers over bamboo poles and sensed the smooth and comfortable feel of the pole.  I did not know that bamboo would eventually become a passion though.  It sort of grew on me.  The passion I mean.

I do have one lonely plant - the nursery said that she hoped I had a big garden.  Well, I don't, and I am not sure where it will find a home, but for the moment is happy in a 9 inch plastic pot.

I have grown in the past, what is called a 'lucky bamboo' but I am advised that it really isn't a bamboo - but the name was devised by a clever marketing person.

Saving the environment has been of interest to me - though I have not participated in any movement, but have quietly and deliberately tried to use environmentally friendly products, I recycle many things, and I shun polluting activities.

However, I have lived in one of the most polluted countries.  China.  It was rare to see the sun, the skies would be filled with dirty smokey 'stuff' or as many Chinese would try to convince me - 'fog'.

I wonder how bad the country would be if it were not for the prolific growth of bamboo which helps to oxygenate the air, and absorbs carbon dioxide.

It was in China, that I saw bamboo growing - as I said earlier I was 'surrounded' by it.  The accommodation for foreign teachers was in a corner of the campus, with a 'river' or canal on two sides, and bamboo grew prolifically in this part of the campus.  In part to prevent us from falling into the polluted canal, and to hide the factories across the canal.

It was here that I learned about the rapid growth of bamboo, and on my travels around the country learned so much about it.

My Journey

Who would have dreamed that finding undies in the Ladies Underwear section of a Target store several years ago would lead me on an amazing adventure discovering the wonders of bamboo - and even to work on a publication about it.

This blog will detail some of my learning, writing, photographs and the meeting of extra ordinary people who have a passion for this much maligned grass.

The passion seemed to creep up on me.  After purchasing the undies and loving them, I sourced other products and was soon wearing socks and a t-shirt made of bamboo - bamboo and viscose with cotton etc.

About that time I went to China, as an "English Teacher" at a university in a city called Shaoxing.  Here I was literally surrounded by bamboo, and discovered the huge array of bamboo products in the stores in the city.

My passion built up momentum.