Marjorie Lewis of Ono never considered herself much of a gardener. More of a dirt person, really.

"I'm just not all that interested in flowers," she said.

But bamboo, that was a different story. Several years ago, Lewis came across Daphne Lewis' book, "Bamboo on the Farm." Her interest in bamboo took off.

"I just fell in love with bamboo," she said.

Bamboo, she discovered, is an amazing plant. A member of the grass family, its high-silica content gives it steely strength. It can be used to build fences, flooring, fly rods, bookcases, benches, musical instruments and even boats. It can also be enjoyed for its tropical beauty in the yard or for its edible shoots at the dinner table.

"You can eat it, you can build with it, you can transport yourself with it," said Lewis, who happens to own a bamboo bicycle. "There is a bamboo for just about every purpose."

Lewis, 74, is a retired nurse who has 17 varieties of bamboo growing at her home.

Her rural 10-acre lot is filled with bamboo — and animals. Rustling through the groves are dogs Luna and Goldie and cats Skeezix, Nigel and Simon. The place is also home to Sally Ride, Orey and Desert Rose, three donkeys who munch daily on bamboo clippings. Nellie, an elderly swayback horse would indulge too, but she is restricted to a special diet. There are goats and pigeons too.

Lewis loves them all, and they flourish under her care. Same goes for the bamboo.

She began growing it about 10 years ago with the goal of selling both ornamental plants and edible shoots at the Redding Certified Farmers Market. She hopes to begin sales next year under the banner, Ono Bamboo.

It's taken awhile to get to this point because bamboo takes it own sweet time. While a cane can increase in length at amazing speed (more than a foot a day with some types), it takes years to develop a strong underground system of rhizomes (underground stems) to support a lot of fast-growing canes.

"You should let your grove get to be 9 years old before you start cutting it or it won't keep producing," Lewis explained.

Bamboo first rises as a culm (stem) from a rhizome below the ground. It will get taller, but not wider during a single growing season. "It never grows in circumference, only height," Lewis noted.

However, the next season, culms that emerge will have a bigger circumference. It takes many years to get substantial canes.

Bamboo requires regular thinning. Removing old canes encourages new canes to be bigger. If you grow a lot of bamboo, you'll soon have a lot of old canes. Green waste facilities don't want them because they can ruin their machinery. And you shouldn't burn them because the heat builds up inside the hollow cavities and makes the canes explosive, Lewis said.

"This is what you do to use up bamboo, you make retaining walls," Lewis said, pointing to one of several cane walls on her property.

She's also built a bamboo gate and has plans to make a bamboo fence.

Bamboo varies in height, width, leaf size, color and shape. Most varieties prefer sun and rich soil that drains well. But there are a couple that will grow in standing water. Several are drought resistant, Lewis said.

"They will take hot summers and cold winters," she said "They're good for this area."

Lewis appreciates the year-round beauty provided by the evergreen plants.

"I think a grove, once established, is really quite attractive," she said.

There are two main types of bamboo. Clumping bamboo has a short root system and stays where it is planted. Running bamboo spreads far and wide, due to long horizontal rhizomes below the ground.

"It's like adopting a puppy," Lewis said of running bamboo. "You have to be responsible and not abandon it."

Exuberant bamboo can be kept in check. Regularly severing the expanding root system is one possibility. Lining planting areas with thick plastic is another tactic. And there's the option of growing in containers.

Bamboo isn't prone to problems. Deer don't have a taste for it. However, gophers will go after tender rhizomes and shoots. If you live in a gopher-rich area, you might consider lining planting areas with wire mesh, advises Bamboo Sourcery, a Sebastopol nursery that specializes in bamboo.

Its Web site notes that there are more than 1,000 species of bamboo. When selecting one for your yard, consider its cold hardiness, heat tolerance, whether the plant is running or clumping, and its eventual height and width, the nursery advises.