The aftermath

At the posh West Seattle Nursery just down the street a 5-gallon pot of bamboo will set you back about 50 bucks.

I looked around at the fallen forest of giant bamboo and said to Bruce, "Are we rich now?"
Well, no.
At least not in bamboo.

Oh, such a heartbreaking sight.  But on the bright side,  none of that gorgeous bamboo went into the municipal compost dump.  Bruce posted a "free bamboo" notice on Craig's List Friday afternoon and that did the trick. It was all hauled off and replanted somewhere else. My living legacy to the Puget Sound region.  I'd call that job security for the Seattle Bamboo Removal Company. 

Share the wealth

Soon the trucks starting pulling up in the alley and by Saturday noon it was almost gone-- a steady, quiet feeding frenzy of free bamboo. 

And like all smorgasbords, the eyes are sometimes bigger than the stomach...

Hey fellas, don't you want that stuff pointing the other direction?  Good luck with that. Self-service only.  We stayed in the house peering through the window.  But I'm glad I didn't have to ride in that pick-up cab down the freeway behind a waving curtain of bamboo.

So, it looks like a war zone around here. But I'm reminding myself this is rock bottom, as ugly as it will ever look again and things can only improve from here.  Bruce and the girls will be back one more time to finish up digging the roots and even things out. And of course, pick up their check.

The war ends, now time to think about reconstruction.  We have a clean slate to work with which is kind of a novel feeling.  All-City Fence Company will be out on Wednesday to give me a bid. A new fence is the first priority.

Maybe something along these lines, with civilized shrubs and flowering vines?

Bamboo??
Been there, done that.