A New Take On Bamboo Torture

About four years ago, I used to live in a nice HOA (Homeowners Association) in a small town in Texas, and I enjoyed having only one neighbor over my backyard fence. The plot was about two acres, and the other side of the backyard butted up to a hay field. The stars were beautiful at night because of virtually no light pollution…

Until the neighbor decided to install an incredibly bright security light over their back porch aimed right at my back patio and bedroom windows. I tried to ignore it at first and put shades in the bedroom, but out on the patio, it was like having a bright LED headlight in your face all night.

I consulted the HOA about adding a privacy addition to my fence to increase its height, and they said no because it was already at the eight-foot maximum allowed height. They said there was nothing in the bylaws or whatever about bright lights, so there was nothing they could do.

I hated for this to be the thing where the neighbors and I finally had a formal greeting after three years of back porch waves, but I walked over and rang the doorbell with $20. I politely explained that the light was causing the aforementioned nuisance and asked if there was any way I could convince him to point the light down or in a different direction. I even offered to buy him a case of beer (with the $20) out of goodwill and even a new motion-sensing light. The neighbor seemed nice and agreed to point it down.

But after waiting a month, nothing changed. I went back to have another polite conversation, and he said he had changed his mind and was going to leave it on every night and leave it pointed as-is.

Needless to say, I was a bit upset that diplomacy had failed, and I started figuring out how to win. If the military taught me anything, it’s that there are always ways to adapt and overcome. So, I started researching fast-growing plants to create big privacy walls and reading through the HOA bylaws and city and state ordinances about what I could or couldn’t plant and whether there were any repercussions for encroachment across the property line.

I quickly discovered that running bamboo, despite being very invasive, would grow super fast to make the neighbor’s house and light disappear from view, and there was nothing on the HOA, state, or city books to prevent me from planting it or cause legal recourse if it spread and grew on his side on the fence. The only thing he could do was cut anything that grew on his side of the line.

So, I pulled the trigger and planted a bunch of Golden Bamboo which grows and spreads crazy fast in Texas and grows up to twenty feet tall. I didn’t care if it took over the fence line because his house was fifteen feet from the fence while mine was fifty yards away, so I planted a bunch right against the fence and only put a root barrier on my side to prevent it from spreading into my yard.

Within six months, my neighbor’s house and light were gone from view, replaced by a pretty bamboo jungle row at the edge of my yard. Within a year, he complained that it was growing into his yard via mailed letters. They went right into the trash with no response. He rang my doorbell once, and I looked at him through the window but just didn’t answer the door.

I unexpectedly sold the house and moved two years after planting for a career opportunity. It’s been two years since I sold, and I just checked the property on Google Earth. The neighbor’s entire backyard is bamboo.