When I was eight years old, my family moved to a new house. It had a nice backyard with a pool and a short fence that made it easy to befriend the boy next door to us. But what was a nice friendship opportunity for me was, of course, a big gap in our home’s privacy.

My parents went back and forth about what to use to screen in the backyard a bit more—a taller fence would require taking the old one down and ruining its rustic addition to the vista, and some trees would be nice, but their deep roots could potentially damage the pool’s foundation.

After much deliberation, my parents landed on bamboo since it grows quickly, has good height for a privacy screen, and would still let the fence show through at the base.

What a mistake that was.

The Problems With Our Bamboo Backyard

Bamboo grows incredibly quickly, which was a factor when my parents were deciding what to plant there. Its shallow roots also wouldn’t threaten the pool’s foundation, and it requires very little water or maintenance which is great for the relentless heat you experience in Houston.

It was a really unique feature that certainly started a lot of conversations at the various soirees my parents hosted. But ultimately, the hassle it created and the headaches it inflicted did not feel worth it to anyone by the time it was removed (for good).

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It Sheds So Much

What wasn’t considered in the process, is that although (and because) bamboo grows so quickly, it is also constantly shedding leaves. This meant that it was not only dropping leaves into the pool, which was making pool upkeep a huge task on a weekly, if not daily, basis—but it shedded indiscriminately. That is to say, we created a problem for our neighbors as well.

Thankfully our neighbors were friends, but they did have a pool of their own and would have been well within their rights to complain to us on a regular basis about the mess we created for them. (We were, after all, complaining on a regular basis about it ourselves.)

It’s Painful

Growing up in this house, I spent a lot of time running around the backyard with my friends. Since bamboo is difficult to tame, there’s no controlling the leaf fall. It’s nearly impossible to cut with standard gardening tools, and it grows in unruly ways.

Some of the stalks of bamboo began growing out over the pool, which was not only annoying for the leaves it shed but was also really painful to run into. Chasing friends around and playing with the dog became a game of dodging and weaving bamboo for fear of hitting it at high speeds. Its lashes were unforgiving, and there came a point where my friends and I had to decide it wasn’t worth running around the backyard anymore.

It’s Impossible to Get Rid Of

Because of all of these issues, my parents decided to get rid of the bamboo after holding out a bit too much hope that it would self-correct. That is, they decided to get rid of it about four times.

Bamboo is notoriously difficult to eradicate. It’s a stubborn plant that will grow back from the tiniest amount of it left in the soil. And that’s exactly what it did. Three times.

This was not only costly because my parents had to hire professionals each time, but just a complete letdown every time it grew back. It became a war of attrition, and although the bamboo is now gone, I’m fully convinced it won the mental battle.