Creating a garden oasis in your backyard, or just having a yard that isn't a barren waste land of weeds and broken concrete, can be challenging on a zero budget.  But I am determined and I am looking for creative solutions.  My creative endeavors has lead me to Craigslist to troll for good soil, plants or any other landscaping stuff that people are giving away or selling for super cheap.  So, I thought I was brilliant when I found an ad where someone was re-doing their landscaping and was giving away their clumping bamboo for free....that is, if you dig it up. 

Having visions of a lush bamboo forest in my backyard, I was very excited about the opportunity (and the price was RIGHT!).  I'm no stranger to hard physical labor, but I didn't know the first thing about transplanting anything, much less bamboo.  I have the perception that they are so hardy and sustainable, so I'm thinking, what the heck - go for it!  The night before the big dig, I googled my way to being an expert on transplanting bamboo plants...or so I thought.

Saturday morning, I get to the site with my pick axe, shovels, garbage backs, buckets and water (see the "before" picture of the lush bamboo before I dug it out).  After over 3 hours of hard work, I get a sizable amount of the beautiful bamboo out of the ground.  The trick is that you must get the whole root ball out of the ground and then, don't let the root get dried out.  This is what the "google machine" told me, anyhow. 

I get home to grab the husband, baby and our truck and we head back over to the site to claim my bamboo prize, the fruits of my labor!  On our way there, the skies opened up. And I mean, downpour of rain!  We decided to go back home and get up the next morning to get the bamboo.

That, my friends, may have been the reason for the demise of my beloved bamboo...I don't know.  I replanted the bamboo in my backyard immediately when I got home, digging the hole just like the google machine told me, mixing in the compost and watering everything when I was done.

I've continued to feed and water the bamboo, but 3 weeks later, I go out to remove the dead leaves and now I have pitiful sticks coming out of the ground (see the "after" pictures of my wall of sticks).  So sad.  I think I've officially killed my bamboo. Total bummer.