Women building van furniture with bamboo

[maki2]

It is too bad that we don't have a good forest of Bamboo in mainland USA. The video below from youtube shows a young woman using on a few simple hand tools for harvesting and then using the wood for making sturdy furniture. In this case a bench, daybed and table. It would certainly be adaptable for building out a van bed. Bamboo is incredibly strong and also light weight. The building systems for it don't require any hardware to hold the structures together. Of course you would might some hardware to secure it to the walls or floor of a van. On the round tubular area pipe straps would work nicely for that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRm_V9p-UfU

But even if you don't build furniture with it you can use it for the horizontal and the post for an awning type of shelter outside of the van doorway. That smaller diameter of bamboo is easy to purchase and also to harvest from gardens.  You can also find bamboo furniture in thrift stores including shelves, dressers, desk, garden tables, etc. Very eco friendly and non toxic too.

 

[Moxadox]

Great idea! You could even use zip ties or leather thongs to connect.

The Dire Wolfess

 

[travelaround]

Inspiring video... I have a couple of long bamboo poles I've been considering putting in my van build somehow. Not sure exactly how that will work yet.

 

[max+sophia]

My father bought a house in NYS with bamboo in the back yard.  In a few years, it was taking over.  Good thing he was a knowledgeable outdoors man in order to deal with it.  I wonder if it has the same qualities as bamboo from other countries.

 

[Moxadox]

^
Well, your comment got me to wondering....isn't bamboo, like, ....bamboo? So I looked it up. Goodness, looks like there is a world of bamboo out there!

http://www.bamboobotanicals.ca/html/bamboo-species/bamboo-species.html

The Dire Wolfess

 

[max+sophia]

Goodness, looks like there is a world of bamboo out there! 

Wow Wolfess, 1400 species and counting.  Very interesting.  It has so many uses, I wonder why it isn't utilized in the IS.  Perhaps because it's so invasive?  I see the link place is the Pacific NW, similar to here in NY. 

Thanks for the link. I'd love to go see their collection.

 

[maki2]

Bamboo is not actually considered to be invasive in the way many weed plants are. It will increase the patch in size by sending out new roots. However when you are going to grow the species that is best for creating "timber wood" you do it in fields just like other crops grow. You have to surround the field with an area that is kept deep plowed and ditched so that the roots don't run out of the field and spread to adjacent areas. It does not do that self seeding thing that typical weed plants and weed trees do. Farming most crops is done with a "method" and bamboo farming requires that.  https://www.agweb.com/mobile/article/bamboo-set-to-go-big-on-us-farmland-naa-chris-bennett/

The Pacific NW is a terrific zone for growing Bamboo but it is also a terrific zone for growing the traditional trees used to create timbers and for trees for making pulp for the paper mills. Money to be made from both but the fastest crop ready to sell is going to be the giant timber bamboo, it can reach as much as 25 feet high in 25 days. That is for new shoots that come up in an established grove. It takes a few years to get a good size grove established for that kind of production rate.

I wonder if I will ever drive past a timber bamboo grove growing in a field one of these years? I remember seeing big fields of young poplar trees planted along the Columbia River in Oregon. They are  fast growing trees, grown as a crop to sell for pulp for making paper. Maybe someday those same fields will hold timber bamboo. It all depends on the market and the profit margins.

 

[Cammalu]

Great idea! You could even use zip ties or leather thongs to connect.

The Dire Wolfess

What are you doing with leather thongs? Sounds a bit uncomfortable to me... [emoji12]

 

[Moxadox]

What are you doing with leather thongs? Sounds a bit uncomfortable to me... [emoji12]

Don't talk to me about THAT kind of thong! I spend my whole life trying to keep my underwear OUT of my crack.

The Dire Wolfess

 

[max+sophia]

You have to surround the field with an area that is kept deep plowed and ditched so that the roots don't run out of the field and spread to adjacent areas.

  Too bad the previous owner of my father's house didn;t know that.  They planted it in the dooryard.  It took him a while to reclaim the area.  His asparagus area was amazing... much deep prepping.

 

[Karla]

The last place I lived in Arkansas we had bamboo taking over the back yard. When you dig or plow it up, if there's a fragment of a rhizome left you've got another bamboo forest in no time. If you can contain it it grows incredibly fast, but good luck containing it!

 

[Moxadox]

Seems like it would make sense to harvest the heck out of it. Bamboo is good for everything: food, fuel, medicine, paper, tools, building material...So much better than kudzu [emoji2]

The Dire Wolfess

 

[LivGolden]

Kudzu! - we know a thing or two about that green, down here... :s

 

[Gardenias]

Wow...I think I'll try my hand at growing bamboo...thanks!

 

[Amaechina]

Loved the video as I'm always looking at sustainable, easy and inexpensive ways of doing things. Thanks, for sharing.

 

[katiejohnson]

I love bamboo furniture but real bamboo furniture has become really hard to find. Furniture that looks like bamboo furniture and uses a different wood is sold everywhere these days.

 

[katiejohnson]

One of the most important points is the pores on the outer surface of the bamboo. In other words, if the pores on its outer surface are excessive, it means that the bamboo has aged. This point should also be noted.