Posted by Marc Williams, Plants and Healers International Executive Director
Feeling very fortunate to have finally had some time in the flesh with the incomparable Andy Firk! Andy hung out with good mutual friend Frank Cook back in the day. The occasion of our experience together was focused around the wonder that is bamboo.
The venue was Tropical Bamboo Nursery and Gardens outside of Palm Beach, FL. 
This is Andy’s favorite bamboo nursery in Florida featuring over 250 spp. and it is easy to see why. Not only is the diversity breathtaking but the whole place is layed out like a botanical gardens with signage and all. We covered a plethora of uses including construction, crafts, edibility, medicinality, wind breaks, animal forage and aesthetics.
A number of structures onsite feature species of Guadua angustifolia which is native to central and south America. This is a favorite bamboo used to make structures at festivals like Burning Man and Envision by groups like Bamboo DNA along with Dendrocalamus asper. This Bamboo is naturally rot resistant but Andy shared various methods to enhance this feature from using methods such as borax, neem and soaking in water to remove starch. He also described how in some locales they even soak it in urine or motor oil!