Sasaki's Mitsubishi mini pickup broke down on the highway 17 grade going from Santa Cruz, CA over the mountain towards San Jose. We were returning from "Giant Bamboo" in Aptos CA. about 2 weeks ago.
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The bamboo place was impressive, with bamboo groves at least 3 stories tall, more varieties of bamboo than you ever thought existed, and lots of interesting stuff made out of bamboo. The prices were higher than I expected (especially if you consider how easy it is to grow bamboo?) A plastic pot with 1 black bamboo stalk, approx 6 ft tall costs $80. So we decided not to buy any until we did a bit more research.
Because the truck's clutch gave out on the way home, we had it towed to San Jose Japantown where we ran into the owner of the restaurant where Sasaki works.
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The restaurant has a lot of black bamboo around the entrance. In fact, it was the inspiration for using bamboo in my front yard landscaping project. Bamboo spreads rapidly, and the black bamboo at the restaurant was due to start poking out new shoots ("Take-no-ko") with the start of spring, so the owner volunteered to give us some bamboo FOR FREE .
Last Saturday, we returned to the restaurant and dug up a clump of 6 stalks of black bamboo (not an easy task) 10 feet + tall out of the grove and brought them back to my front yard where we planted them in a position to screen the walkway that goes from the front door to the side of the house.
Now I need to get a "rhizome barrier" to keep the stuff from spreading too much. Perhaps another trip to "Giant Bamboo" ?
11:05:51 PM 
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