As a newly minted Buncombe County master gardener, I was excited to see your gardening cover [March 26, Xpress].
Imagine my disappointment when your gardening section turned out to be about growing bamboo, an invasive plant that provides no habitat for our native fauna and crowds out our native plants [“Riot of Color, Courtesy of Spring.”] Bamboo is highly invasive and damaging in the United States as it is an aggressive spreader. We should be removing it, not encouraging people to grow it.
We have lots of native shrubs, such as American holly, mountain laurel or viburnum, that would make a more biodiverse privacy screen. Please promote our native plants, not invasive plants.
— Diane Mooney
Asheville
