Some big bamboo

You could almost make a tumbling barrel out of one of those sections ;D
Watch out for the splinters when it's dry -nasty!

do the groves groom themselves, or do they require thinning and mowing?

Why do you call them groves? Isn't "lawn" a better term for all that grass?

MMMMMMM bamboo shoots very tasty

I get all the shutes i want .I have a mower that i pull behind the atv that cuts the young shutes when they start coming out of the ground to keep it at bay.Groves that size will double in size yearly if the perimeter is not mowed.It requires no fertilizer in this area because the red clay gives it all the moisture and fertilizer it needs and some.All that bamboo shoots in April and grows to full size in 30 days(2-3 feet a day)then stops growing.

When the wind blows do you get knock knock knocking from the big bamboos hitting together. Hawaii has a place that you can go and listen to the bamboo drums. It is way cool. In China all the scaffolding is made of bamboo and it is really amazing to see. I also met a man there that carves scenes around the outside of large bamboo that are very impressive. I will try to find a photo.

Do you harvest it for something? I used to fish with a bamboo pole when I was a wee lad.
Jim

Bamboo
1 Grows to full height in one cycle of the moon(30 days).So 60 foot tall bamboo grows 2 feet a day-and never grows an inch taller till the cane dies in 6-10 years.
2 It is a grass.So yes it could be called a lawn.
3 It does make knocking sounds in the wind.With the drought last summer it was making large popping sounds from the cavities rupturing.
4 Mature groves like that multiply very fast.But they only shoot new canes up for a short period of time-April and May.Mow or eat the shutes then and the grove will stay in check.
5 If the canes in a grove are 70 feet tall(common in N. Georgia) then root system spreads that far and can shoot a cane up that far away.
6 Sold bamboo in 45 gallon pots for $200 each for years.Maybe 80 a year.Dang good income for a 30 x120 foot patch of irrigated land.Every 3 years i would dig 300 clumps and plant em in those big pots using free Georgia clay.Auto drip irrigation and sell away.1rst year was for establishment.Demand dropped recently and wrists and shoulders don't last long digging that stuff.So i retired the bamboo.Now i am dig your own farm-from the 40 varieties.Come on over,i will give you a razor sharp shovel and keep it sharp whilst you dig away.On big orders i used to rent a pnuematic jack hammer w/a shovel tip.Those tough roots didn't stand a chance.
7 Harvest canes to this day for Hollywood and Atlanta film companies.Like the movie 'Fled'.Also party contractors buy poles for tiki/Jimmy Buffet parties.They always want big diameter 2-4 inch stuff.I get poles from nuiscance groves on other properties.Rarely for utility.
8 Have had the police come several times from reports of automatic gun fire reports.Me and Candler will hand work some areas and pile the poles to burn.We found that cutting 2-4 inch poles into about 6 foot lengths and stacking in a teepee burn pile gets the police often.Gotta add a little fuel in the center and burn them while they are green.That length has a violent explosion.And if there is several 100 or more explosions in 10 minute burn it beats LA gangsta shoot outs every time:>
9 Oh,clients asking about the obnoxious next door neighbor sueing them because the bamboo is attacking their yard.Usually planted in urban areas in an attempt to block off said obnoxious neighbor.Especially if the neighbor lives on the south side-the direction of travel of a bamboo grove(towards warm sun heated ground).NUP-nothing he can do Mr Client,that is an act of nature,smile and wave.
10 Bamboo scaffold in China is connected with plastic tie wraps,and 50 stories happens.And they have resisted typhoons where the steel scaffolds came down.Go figure.
11 The Atlanta zoo came down here to get samples of a bunch of varieties of bamboo to see what appealed to the picky panda's pallet.Red neck pandas-their favorite was local river cane growing on the banks of the polluted Chattahochee River-low class man, low class.One panda eats the leaves off of 2-300 hundred pounds of bamboo-a day!.bears-or pigs.Thought i was gonna get rich off bamboo until those animals turned their nose up at my high dollar bamboo.
12 When harvesting shorter bamboos,the sharp limbs quickly damage eyes.I insisted that me or helper Candler always wore a full coverage motorcycle helmut when harvesting/digging in those bamboos.
13 Bamboo will not cross a creek.So creeks make great grove boundaries.4 creeks on this property so bamboo was a good choice.Will not cross under a 6 foot wide slab of concrete-guess the soil is too cold.
Guess that sums up the high lights of the bamboo experience.Hope it makes your day.

I thought all that bamboo came from Chino Scott-or is it China-ha ha.I forgot to tell about the helicopters that have flown over on several occasions-police thinking it was another kind of grass.Apparently it shows up on infared as hot too.One blew my pots down and i hurled a rock....That same helicopter flew down on my neighbors and landed in his field.Ran his bull into the barb wire and about killed it.Billy almost killed that policeman.

Chino got bamboo. Lot's o' bamboo. Ours is all Arundo donax. It is a terrible invasive weed here. Ruins every habitat is invades. Not effected by fires, wind or bulldozers.

Don't start that gangsta talk again shotgunman?Didn't we decide gangstas are to smart to wade in the swamps and catch baby gators?