Yes, it’’s just around the corner. The most amazing time of the year for me anyway. In about the second week in March it will be time to fertilize for me in Northern Kentucky. For those of you north of me I would wait another two weeks. For people who grow bamboo you know exactly what I”m talking about. Bamboo shooting season will have myself and many others on their hands and knees crawling around in their yard looking for new shoots. I know this sounds a little nuts but, when you see the speed at which these things grow you too will be astonished. I am expecting big things this year it will be my 9th year growing it and last year my canes really started to size up. I expect the canes to grow to 30 ft tall this year and around 1 1/2 inches in diameter. My groves are really starting to fill in nicely. I”m looking at getting around 3000 new canes this year, how exciting is that? As always Gabelmans Gardens offers you the chance to experience this amazing transformation of my gardens and see what you might be missing out on. Starting April 1st the shooting begins in the second and third week of April is when the magic really begins.  The shoots will be growing about a 1 1/2 ft. in a 24 hour period. By the end of the third month the canes will be fully grown and have leaves and branches. (WOW!) 3 months, 30 ft. tall.  But, that’’s nothing compared to what it grows like in the tropics. Up to 4 1/2 ft a day 80 to 100 ft in three months with leaves and branches. They don”t call it the magic plant for nothing. If you”d like to come out and check out the bamboo shooting  feel free to contact me by calling (859)468-5625 and set up an appoitment. This will take place from April to June. So come out and get started in this exciting new world of gardening. I also have many other projects going on that I will share with you as well. Bamboo can be contained very easily and if you stop by I will teach you how to have your bamboo and keep it right where you want it. It will not take over if you don”t let it. 4 methods of control. Bamboo gets a bad reputation for taking over your whole yard, but it only tries to survive just like every other plant in the world and will only go as far as you and mother nature will allow it to. So all the horror stories come from lazy gardeners who just give up and let it take over. A grove of bamboo is like a tree in the way that every year it gets bigger and stronger, only difference being that a tree has one trunk and the bamboo grove has many many canes(culms). A grove of bamboo will provide much more cover for wildlife that are losing their homes due to human overpopulation. Not to mention that it will provide us with some green foliage during the dead of winter and looks real nice in the snow. Who knows how many uses there are for this incredible plant thousands maybe even millions of uses. I guess we will never know the answer to that. What I do know is that this plant is used by more people for more things than any other plant in the world. Thanks for reading. Jeff