You can get bamboo fencing (constructed from whole canes) more than 7' high. I used a couple of rolls to screen the neighbors' trampoline and crap.

Don't rule out live bamboo as well. In the PNW, you can grow clumping varieties such as Bambusa textilis and Bambusa multiplex 'Alphonse Karr." Or runners such as Phyllostachys aureosulcata, P. bissetii and P. bamubusoides, P. rubromarginata and P. mannii 'Decora" that will form tall (25-30') groves. they are easy to keep pruned away from phone poles. just keep that area cleared of new shoots every spring/early summer.

There are lots of bamboo nurseries in the PNW, some of the big ones are run by Gib Cooper and Ned Jaquith. There also is a really good bamboo and reed fence company, Master Garden Products (www.mastergardenproducts.com), that has every type of privacy screen you can think of. It also is in the PNW so the shipping price shouldn't be bad.

If you want to look at sites for living bamboo, give a holler and I'll post links.

If you need to talk to the neighbour about your gardening, then talk about the kind of mood you are trying to create in your yard, rather than about the view you are trying to block. Green oasis, privacy, secret garden, lush vine-draped haven, and such should be your key words. This will be more convincing if you actually do create a garden rather than just throwing up a hedge or fence.

You know both of the ideas above are great! The 7 foot idea is terrific.I think I will look for some for my next project. I also have phyllostachys bambusoides, and its wonderfull. I keep it contained by root pruning and culling, or harvesting the canes that come up where I dont want them. (wait about 6 months to a year after they shoot to make sure they are realy done growing and hard, or they dry wierd. also, dont do anything with them while the stuff is putting up new shoots, unless you are snaping a shoot off to cull it) I also harvest any that are smaller than the rest of the grove or getting older. I like to use the ones I cut for trellaces or other stuff, even the little side brances (which start very high up on this type of bamboo)I cut down and take the leaves off and use for support on the heavier branches of my fuschias. its a plant that realy pays its way. Good luck!

Thanks everybody so much for all the great ideas! Funny, but bamboo was one of the things I was considering, my only real concern being the invasive quality of it, but I see with some diligent pruning, I can keep that under control. Does it really grow thick enough to screen and more importantly, is it evergreen, as winter is far longer here than summer. I do love English Lauel, but none of you even mentioned it, so I'm wondering if that is a really bad idea? I am going to a nursery today and will check out their bamboo offerings. Again, thank you all!
Greenlydia

It is agressive rather than invasive, planting invasive plants iss bad for the environment, planting agressive plants is bad for your back (if you're the one keeping them under controll atleast). You may want to put some deep edgeing on the other side of the clump so the bamboo doesn't take over his yard, Our nieghbor put a garden around her front yard and put edgeing in to keep her grass out, but she din't put any edgeing at the fence, so when she stopped tending the garden the entire thing was completely overgrown by grass.

I previously posted about a similar problem - a neighbor who dumped tons of wood on my border - so that the view from our house looks like a junkyard. I winced avery day during the winter - and in the spring went out and got the widest Norway Spruces I could find. I had planted two 6 or 7 footers but they are probably eight feet wide. They were planted in a strategic position which "stops" the eye from noticing the junk - although you can see it between the two trees and on the sides. They certainly helped obscure the view - and they grow OK in shade. In the spring, when I could afford it, I planted another Norway Spruce to the side of the other two so there isnt much to see now - the two original ones grew together by about a foot so that helps in the middle. I need just one more spruce to complete the "picture".

So I would not be disheartened by what looks like a large eyesore - strategic planting is the answer, filling in when you can afford it. But it would be too expensive to plant the whole shebang right away and that stops most of us from even starting.

Two 7-gallon pots of P. bissetii and P. mannii "Decora" completely screen my back border after only 2 seasons. If you plant them in a staggered row (instead of a straight "rank of soldiers" row), they make an even denser screen because of the depth-dimension created.

As was stated, running bamboos are aggressive, not invasive. But I have grown it on a 115'X60' property for almost 10 years and never have had trouble with it going over bounds. I just watch where the new shoots come up each spring (different species shoot at different times, so just learn what those times are) and cut the ones that pop up too far from the "parent" or in places where they don't belong. The shoots are soft, and in fact are edible -steamed bamboo shoots at the Chinese restaurant come from these very shoots. They are easy to knock over with a kick, or a whack with a hoe, or a snip with the pruners.

It might be a gift to your neighbor to let it creep into his property, though. Eventually, the clutter will be lost in a sea of bamboo, and he might not notice. teehee.

Oh my gosh, I was going to say somthing about it possibly taking over the neighbors yard and making his life a living hell, but thought I ought not, because it sounds sort of mean spirited, if you dont know the preson who says it is only kiding. I dont think it hurts your karma to fantasize tho :)
actually every thing above is true about the bamboo control. as well, I wish I had heard this befor I got mine and tried it befor I started my grove, but another way to do it in addition to the things cady mentioned, is to dig a trench around the area where the 'Boo will be. if you make a buried barrier, the stuff will try to go over it. if it gets thwarted, it will go under. but left to its own devices, it does not harbor any nefarious visions of world conquest, and will basicly be happy to travel straight out and on ward, and not to deep under the surface of the soil, (less than a foot) so it pops its little root out into the trench and you snap it of or dig it back and then it does stay contained. it will eventually get pretty dense, and you will have to decide how you like that, I really do harvest and cull mine, because id rather have 15-20 canes of 2-3 inch in diameter perfect stalks than a zillion little runty ones. any how, prevntion is the key, and you will be addicted. Have fun!

"As was stated, running bamboos are aggressive, not invasive."

Funny...Phyllostachys aurea shows up on the "Invasive Alien Plant Species of Virginia" list. I will mention that I have a deep hatred for running bamboo after battling with the bamboo that took over a big chunk of my back yard, and my neighbor's back yard and their neighbor's backyard. I have to chuckle when I see bamboo for sale at the nursery for $100+ a pop. My guess is that bamboo will be much harder to control in the PNW than in Massachusetts.

- Brent

Here is a link that might be useful: Invasive Alien Plant Species of Virginia

Brent,

The reason why "those in the know" say that 'boo is aggressive, not invasive, is that for all its running, every culm you see from one individual planting is part of a single, unique organism. Most bamboos do not flower and set seed for many years after planting, and depending on their species, they may flower/seed once every 5-20 years, or even once in a lifetime (the fargesias, a clumping genus, flower and set seed after 80-120 years, then die).

An invasive plant is one that reproduces freely, creating seeds that produce individual new plants. When a 'boo runs, it is only setting up its own "solar sails" for a central entity. Of course, one bamboo "entity" may exist over several acres. heh. But botanically and horticulturally, this is different than being an invasive type of plant.

In the PNW, those I know who raise bamboo have less trouble controling it than people in the deep South. The bottom line is if you plant a large and aggressive species and walk away, never monitoring its shoots, then you can expect that in 10 years a mature grove will have formed that will need backhoes and dynamite to remove.

But yearly monitoring and good management will keep things under control. I have grown 'boo on my 115'X60' property for 9 years with no difficulties. I'm in zone 6b, which is not horribly cold, and the larger species I grow are hardy in much colder climates. If I slacked off and didn't groom and prune my groves, I'd have been a public nuisance 5 years ago. But I do tend my 'boo just as I tend the other plants in my garden, and have never had out-of-countrol bamboo.

wondering about the "12 inch" comment in the original post? Did she mean what I think she meant?

Clearly she meant the measurement of his feet...

I live in the Seattle area where burning of any kind is illegal, but when we lived out in the country, people were allowed to burn yard waste, but never garbage!

You should report your neighbor to the county so they can get him to stop putting all that toxic waste into the air!

It sounds like something you could talk to your city council or county commissioner about. I'm sure it's not legal to be burning things like that there. They will probably make him clean up his act. The underlying problem isn't going to go away by planting something in front of it. It sounds like it could attract vermin. There is a lady that lives on the ajoining lot to ours that had this old junky trailer that she'd abandoned full of crap. There were rats (large), cats and weasels or something going in and out. The city finally made her clean it up. In the interim we did put a 8 ft fence up but it didn't get rid of the rodent/cat problem. Some of the rodents were bigger than our chihuahua. :~/ She still has a mess from having it torn down and parts of it carted away but it isn't a place for any animals to call home anymore at least.

interesting discussion here too...

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/restoration/msg12193120742.html?13

am i allowed to do this?
hope so! if not, OOPS. sorry. mj in ri

The clumping type of bamboos mentioned are not going to be invasive in the PNW, and the Bambusa glaucescens 'Alphonse Karr' is a particularly nice cultivar to use as a screen that won't get much over 15 to 18 feet in height, and only slowly forms larger clumps. The running bamboos may also be just fine if they are bordered by lawn on both sides of the fence that gets regularly mowed. Mowing will take care of new shoots easily, and serve to keep its spread under control. It may also be less of a problem if your soil dries out enough in the few months of rainlessness, as bamboos don't want to grow into hard compacted dry soil, particularly if where they are planted is irrigated in summer, and the surrounding area isn't. Even the highly running Phyllostachys aurea is manageable here in California if surrounded by non-irrigated areas that serve to keep it under control.

The English Laurel would also probably work, but is not as fast growing as most Bamboos, and may need summer irrigation in your area to really do well. You might also consider using some of your local PNW native evergreen large shrubs/small trees for screening. Some of the Ceanothus, Arctostaphylos, Heteromeles arbutifolia might work well. I'd suggest asking for suggestions on the Northwest Gardenweb forum for specific plants that will do best in your area.

One last Bamboo suggestion, Pseudosasa japonice is a relatively restrained running bamboo that only gets 8 to 12 feet tall, is more drought tolerant than most, and works great as a screen. Black Stem Bamboo, Phyllostachys nigra is also quite beautiful, if taller to about 20 feet tall, and not as aggressively spreading as Golden Bamboo. You might also consider using something like Strawberry tree, Arbutus unedo...