Bamboo shade awning, what to use to tie it?

Ok I have a arbor that covers most of the front of my house, it is just the frame. In this picture youcan see my bedroom windows and the front part of the frame and two of the support beams:

I have a huge pile of 3" diameter bamboo that is from a fence some friends of mile pulled down. Not particularly good looking stuff but can be cleaned up and used. They are all between 6-8 feet long. So what I am thinking is laying the bamboo with like a 2" gap between them across the support beams of the arbor. That way I get a little morning shade in my bedroom window and my plants may stop cooking in the afternoon sun.

My question is, what would be good to tie the bamboo to the arbor with. It will show on the underside of these 8" this beams and it will have to survive the elements.

Any thoughts? Tips? Ideas?

I would use actual screws to attach the bamboo to your patio cover first... and then wrap the bamboo cris crosses with Manila rope.

the best way to keep the rope intact as long as possible is to coat it with a Spar varnish. Coat the Bamboo too.

It will waterproof it... give it a nice amber aged color and will act as a bonding agent to keep your knots tight. The rope AND bamboo will die from the elements no matter what.... Its just a matter of how long you can make them last with long lasting coatings like Spar Varnish.

but, it will still crack, and water will get inside and sit there ,so address that posibility.

Honestly the bamboo is already "aged" from it's life as a fence. The bamboo is beyond beautification and is cracked and weathered in some spots. I will probably be putting about 15 or so pieces up there to give a little shade. Thanks on the varnish tip, I will probably at least use that on the ties. If it lasts me 2 summers that would be fine. Right now the stuff is just attracting spiders next to my garage :)

I've used fine sandpaper on old bamboo and it cleans it right up.

I hope you post pictures when you finish your project. Would love to see how it turns out.

MrsHoptiki

I will post pictures after I am done. Can't do it this weekend because I will be at Tiki Invasion but I hope to get this started late next week.

Ok we have finally gotten around to this project and I have another question. We are also using some of this old bamboo fencing to face a gate on the side of my house. My question is, do we need to do anything to cap off the tops of the bamboo? When it was used as fencing it was just nailed up and left natural so it is pretty beat up already. Just did not know if water getting into the tops is a problem. We don't really live where it rains a lot so it is not a constant problem.

we pretty much finished our bamboo projects this weekend and I took a few photos:

more here:
http://flickr.com/photos/catmomma/sets/72157605294166881/detail/