Bamboo creations

I have always loved bamboo. It was a dream realized when we moved to Puerto Princesa, Palawan in the Philippines, onto our own 5 acre (or 2 hectare) slice of heaven. One of the attractions to me were the many bamboo groves. This particular bamboo is almost solid and happens to be one of the best variety to build with.

If you are going to use bamboo, make sure it is properly cured. Here in the Philippines we have issues with a bug called buk buk (prounounced book book), it's a sort of termite that loves bamboo and reduces it to powder.

If you are lucky enough to live by the sea, you can soak the poles in the sea water for a month, and it will never get buk buk or termites. We have to use a non toxic solution that is sprayed on before it's used.

Almost everything I need for our home is made from bamboo since it is readily available.

Technically, bamboo is an evergreen grass! It reaches maturity in about 4 years and can grow over 1 foot per day in ideal conditions. Bamboo creates 2/3rds more oxygen than most any other plant and absorbs as much carbon dioxide.

Sprouts naturally spread through their own root system and are helpful in soil erosion as well. Since it grows so fast it is a perfect sustainable building material and is as strong as steel. The tensile strength of steel is 24,000 PSI, the tensile strength of bamboo is 28,000 PSI. Thus, bamboo is stronger than steel! Bamboo is stronger molecularly. It has been used as a building material for thousands of years by many cultures where it grows.

The young roots are also edible and are a good source of fiber and potassium as well as low in fat and calories. They are using bamboo fibers to make hypo allergenic clothing as it has anti-bacterial properties.

I went shopping for kitchen cupboards at the local hardware store in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, but everything was backordered for a month. Instead I had the local carpenters put together these custom cupboards for me with our bamboo.

I had them space the bamboo so that air would flow. In the tropics, anything that is totally closed up is susceptible to molds. These cupboards let the air flow and I haven't had any problems with the mold issue.

It is a sad fact than in the provinces in the Philippines, bamboo is very unappreciated, since it grows almost everywhere, the natives feel it is not so important.

I had to teach our local native carpenters how to properly cure, harvest and appreciate bamboo. They had never built kitchen cupboards or railings such as for our decks before. I think in the end they wound up doing a good job and came away with a better appreciation of the common bamboo. I have gone into some of their native huts since and I noticed they now use bamboo for holding their utensils such as what they built for me.