A group of us recently visited the Bamboo Garden Nursery in North Plains, Oregon to take a tour of the land and bring home some Moso bamboo for our workshop. Bamboo Garden is 20 acres of both rare and common bamboos making up the most diverse bamboo collection in the United States. Just a half-hour ride from Portland, the Nursery cares for approximately 340 species of bamboo! Check out Joe’s video to see some of the beautiful acreage, and meet Adam from the Nursery:



Bamboo Garden Nursery specializes in the retail, wholesale, and mail-order markets. Started in 1980, they helped establish the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the American Bamboo Society (ABS). Ned Jaquith, owner of the Nursery, was elected in 2006 as Vice President of the ABS and has been awarded Honorary Lifetime Membership. These guys know their bamboo better than anyone.



We planted the Moso bamboo next to our loading dock, right outside our woodshop. This is the same species of bamboo we use to craft our iPhone and iPad cases and our wall art - it’s going to grow to be about 30 feet tall!  Ken and Scott tore out the blackberry bushes, cleaned up the trash, tilled the soil, mixed it with mulch and fertilizer, properly trenched, made a mound, and planted the bamboo. Now we can enjoy the lushness during sunny lunches and let our bamboo flag fly proudly for our Southeast Portland neighbors to see!



There’s several reasons we choose to use bamboo versus other types of wood. All reasons point to bamboo’s superior sustainability factors. Bamboo grows and spreads quickly - sometimes three to four feet per day - easily replenishing itself without the need for fertilizers, pesticides, or loads of water. Since Grove participates in the fast-paced, ever-evolving technology industry, it only makes sense to use a resource that can keep up.

When compared to a similar-sized patch of trees, a bamboo grove can release about 35% more oxygen into the air. Instead of taking 30 to 50 years to replant and mature, as tree forests can, bamboo groves can be renewed in less than seven years! Bamboo can generate 20 times more timber than the same area of trees, and also  prevents erosion as it grows. You can read more about bamboo use in Scientific American.

Ahh! We’re simply crazy for bamboo! But you already knew that.

Written by Mary Yajko. She is a Grove customer support rep and crazed blogger originally from upstate New York. She enjoys opened minds, uncontrollable fits of laughter, and large amounts of french fries with ketchup.