Bamboo: First a Home Now a Business
On
hot days his “plantation” is cool.
In winter storms the air is quiet even though the beach is
only three blocks away. This is Tom Burton’s Shangri-la. Here, as
protected and secluded as the mythical Tibetans, Burton’s walls of
bamboo provide him and his family a calm solitude in which he
pursues the good life. For him, that means devoting himself to nurturing plants and people.
Bamboo farming
is a diversification for Burton from commercial fishing gone dry.
It’s also a way of life. For 30 years, he made his living hauling
in salmon and crab; most of his time now is spent growing bamboo and
creating bamboo products. His experience is a model for many who
find a need to change direction in mid career.
It
all began in 1981 when Burton and his wife Jan built their barn-red
plank home in cooperation with five other families through a Farmers
Home Administration program. Completed, the house sat starkly on a
large lot until a landscaper brother-in-law brought his season
leftovers, 65 pots of this and that. Two of the pots held Henon
bamboo that flourished -- Burton fell in love. A short time later,
he rescued a grove of Japonica bamboo at risk for being bulldozed
under and added that to his budding collection. That first Henon
grove now towers some 30 feet tall and is surrounded by densely
clustered groves of 30 other species.
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The
Burton property is in Blaine, Washington. In
real estate, the big word in this area -- Drayton Harbor, Semiahmoo,
Birch Bay -- is ‘view’. In contrast, Burton’s plantation
offers peaceful seclusion. Early on, he planted a row of bamboo to
screen any peek toward his neighbor’s bedroom window. Next, he
provided a vista of green for the outlook from the Burtons’ own
living room. When asked what his neighbors think of all the bamboo,
he smiles and gestures at the surrounding greenery “Look what they
see!”
Burton
is a student of bamboo and also a teacher, using any opportunity to
share his admiration of bamboo as a sentient living organism, a
natural growing masterpiece, and a magnificent building material. He
speaks with intense sensitivity about the characteristics of the
different species, such as the Blue Fountain from the Himalayas.
Thinking it would be ideal for the cool Pacific Northwest, he
obtained some root. The first winter he learned that it copes with
the lower temperature by dropping leaves, the only bamboo with which
he works that does that. Other species stay green year round.
He invites a
visitor to rub the trunk of a Yellow Groove, feeling the smooth
surface on the downward stroke, and the rough, scaly texture on the
upward pass. He demonstrates the kinking, mist-shaded stems of the
Yellow Groove; the torpedo sprout of the Dragon’s Breath; and the
ebony stems of the Black China bamboo. In the grove of Vi Vax
bamboo, he points out the new culms – towering 24 feet since
sprouting six weeks ago. White rings around the nodes are a waxy
lubricant the cells extrude to ease the rapid division responsible
for the explosive growth. The plant blasts up as straight shoots,
and then leafs out. The Yellow Groove bamboo shows that mark where
each branch sprouted; the others are more discreet about their
offshoots.
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One highly
productive rhizome (roots and stalk on an underground stem) produced
“seven sisters and one brother.” Burton discovered the root a
couple of years ago, showing seven simultaneous shoots, a highly
unusual event. The more common sequence is for the plant to send up
individual shoots, testing the light and sensing the number of
leaves already photosynthesizing. If it determines more shoots are
needed, it sends them up. If an error in judgment results, some
shoots will die off. This plant waited a year or so, and then sent
up the one brother. The original stalk, some three feet away, is
leafed to its base, showing it knows it has plenty of light and
space.
When a fellow
Blaine resident calls to ask about a plant he wants identified,
Burton invites him right over. The man arrives carrying a sprig that
he hands to Tom, who immediately says, “Oh sure, Pleioblastus
Humilis.”
“Well,
okay, so how high will it grow? I want it to shade the morning sun
from that corner of my green house.”
“This
is a little guy, three to four feet max,” says Burton. “Besides,
morning sun is good for your green house.”
“Not
as much as I get,” replied the seeker, “What would grow about
eight to ten feet?”
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Inviting
him to view some varieties, Burton heads to the front yard, pausing
at a stand of Golden bamboo. The stout green canes show closely
packed lower internodes. Called the “Fishpole Bamboo”, it is
often cultivated for its ornamental value and is appreciated for its
clumping -- versus running -- tendencies. He suggests it would be
ideal, growing to approximately 10 to12 feet. He briefly describes
several other varieties under the net shading of his inventory plot.
After brief contemplation, the new fan purchases his own Golden
bamboo that Burton suggests could be easily divided into two plants.
Then he explains the care and feeding of bamboo.
This
plant started as a piece of rhizome, buried in a bed enriched with
organic manure, compost, bone meal and blood meal. After a year, it
moved from its nursery bed to a three-gallon pot, where it spent
another year building a root system before it was ready to brave the
big world. It is now prepared to become the green house guardian. It
shows no evidence of a spider mite that is the only threatening pest
for bamboo. The mite does not harm the health or growth of plants,
but does mar the appearance by creating yellow spots where it feeds
on leaves and branches.
Bamboo
is one of the sub-families of grasses. It needs lots of water,
mulch, and occasional added nutrients. Burton’s only deviation
from organic growing -- appropriate for edible shoots -- is using
lawn fertilizer to intensify the leaf color.
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For
the first years, as fishing continued to be profitable, bamboo was
just a hobby. A friend who was selling vegetable and herb plants at
the farmers market in Bellingham encouraged Burton to bring some of
his plants. They sold and Burton realized he had a business. For his
50th birthday he gave himself a present -- to stop going
to Alaska for salmon.
A
woman Burton met at the market asked if he dug roots. She offered 
him all the diggings he could use if he would remove the overgrowth
for her. That was seven years ago. Since then he has been expanding
his bamboo sphere. Some buyers wanted fences and trellises. That was
easy for Burton. People building a dream home are willing to pay as
much as $55 a foot for an attractive bamboo fence. Burton also
diversified into water fountains.
But
this isn’t a get rich quick business. A plant that sells for $60
requires a cash outlay of only $20 but, as Burton is quick to
explain, “There’s slow turnover.” Fencing bamboo dries for a
year in his storage shed. And then there is labor, his and that of
two protégées he keeps busy all summer. As in most family
businesses, his wife and two children pitch in wherever and whenever
necessary. Burton grows most of the bamboo he uses in products,
except for Asian varieties that he buys for high-end fences and
trellises.
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When
serving as mayor of Blaine, Burton strove to protect the cottage
industries of the town. He has long been an advocate of rural
entrepreneurship. Now in his third year as president of the
Bellingham Farmers Market, he and other board members hired a
manager whose assigned mission was to take the market from a “life
style expo” to a place of commerce. One of the strategies is
holding special product festivals one Saturday each month. Sales
records were set the last two years.
Burton
is also excited about his association with the horticulture class at
the Blaine high school, advising on a curriculum covering the bamboo
growth process from bare root through potting and nurturing to full
plant. This mentoring is now aimed at creating a 4-H type program to
involve the teens in supplying and operating their own booths at
farmers markets.
Relaxed
in his own Shangri-la, Tom Burton is a worthy model for rural
entrepreneurship. He spends his days growing and crafting bamboo,
mentoring youngsters and supporting organic principles. There is
time for reading that he and his wife, Jan, enjoy together. This is
no “Lost Horizon,” but a real oasis of green amid the blue
waters, granite beaches and the people of his community.
[A
version of this article was published in Small Farm Today,
September 2003 and in Rhapsody in Writing: An Eclectic Collection
2001-2004, June 2004]
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