Atter Cleaning

Today we cleaned the Atter bamboo. The team used sawzall’s to cut shoots that were too small or to crowded. This afternoon’s work is going to be propagating Malay Dwarf keikis. We have been making these starts for a while now, and are about halfway to our (don’t quote me on this. I’m probably wrong) 1,000 keiki goal.  For more information on bamboo propagation, I found this website. Bamboo Propagation

Quote of the week:

When I was walking down the hill, I felt like Godzilla. Walking all slow going “rawr rawr rawr”

Kapok

More clearing today on the upper reaches of the project. We had the extra help of a new guy as well, which allowed Allison to work on planting more peach palms. Yay! Two of our Kapok trees made seed pods which I have been harvesting. I’ve got six so far, and they made about a gallon of material. They are used for their cotton-like substance that surrounds the seeds in the pod. This is what Wikipedia says about it. And here is an image of it opened up still on the tree. It is really soft and has been fun to play with.

Photos by Ryan Zucco

More bamboo things

While this chair may not have quite the same charm that our outhouse does, it was designed by Isamu Noguchi, known for his famous rice paper lamps. It’s a good example of one of the ways bamboo can be used to create beautiful furniture that doesn’t look like it belongs in a tiki bar. Unfortunately it costs $9,500.00, but with a few weeks of effort and a master weaver or two, we might be able to make one of our own.

Photo from The Noguchi Museum Store

bamboo buildings

Guadua Bamboo, from Costa Rica, has posted some great photos on flickr of some bamboo structures recently completed in Costa Rica. We’ve been talking about how great bamboo is for a building material, and here are some perfect examples of what you can build with bamboo: a national park structure and a residential home.

We have several groves of Guadua angustifolia, the bamboo used in these structures, here at Whispering Winds that we’re cultivating for sale.