Drive around more established neighborhoods to see what does well and you like the looks of. A local nursery can help with ID and spacing, then buy the size that fits your budget...not much help, but practical. Barbara

My parents have had an invasive type of bamboo for some 25 or 30 years now. Mowing does work just fine, is fast, and has kept it "contained". Every year it takes less and less time. In spring time you do get a short 2 to 3 week period (although this may vary with the variety) where little shoots pop up. They look like asparagus and don't taste too bad actually. This is the time to mow them down. For those root systems that pop up where you can't mow like flower gardens or amidst rocks then we found cutting the stalk and putting some roundup in the shoot worked wonders. A few would survive and end up coming up as bushy little plants that did not spread. In the areas where it was left to grow it developed into this dense forest that is beautiful. We cut a path through it years back and put in a flagstone set of stairs. It is really cool to just walk those stairs with the bamboo up and all around you. Another nice thing with the bamboo is that it is very flexible so that for all those ice storms we see the stalks would just bend way over to the ground. Then once the sun warmed them enough that some ice would fall off the stalks shoot up like a slingshot showering everything with ice chips. It's like a little wonderland to walk underneath the bamboo when they are bent over like that. Anyway, that's my experience with bamboo. Jim

I'd still go with the arbs but in that space I'd go narrower. Maybe 'Hetz Wintergreen' or even 'DeGroot's Spire'. So long as they are planted properly and watered properly those first two years browning shouldn't be an issue. I might also mix in two narrow Serbian Spruce cultivars or two Picea glauca 'Pendula' for contrast. Maybe two arbs and three spruces or vice versa. tj

Please do some research and ask locally about bamboo. In the 80s and 90s, bamboos were promoted relentlessly in the UK. When I started out as a pro-gardener (design and build), I almost gave up because so many of my jobs involved the (difficult and exhausting) removal of bamboo. Contrary to popular supposition, it rarely remained within bounds...even with high grade rootbarriers. However, a number of customers had also planted bamboo above ground in galvanised containers...which did a reasonable job of maintaining a clumping form...but what hardly anyone had considered was the enormous amount of water these plants require to look decently clothed. A dry bamboo is a horror of brown, dessicated foliage (hard, sharp little leaves at that) which littered the ground on a daily basis...while the culms themselves were semi-naked with a mix of green and dull tan leafage. A most unnattractive look which resembled the famous lush bamboo groves of those Chinese films (Creeping Tiger, Raise the Red lantern, Hero etc.etc.) not one bit. Thankfully, the fad for bamboo (so easy to propagate and sell for eye-watering prices) has finally crawled to a stop here in the UK...after so many home-owners watched their pond-liners, concrete paths, foundations and walls simply crumble beneath the persistence and vigour of a rampant phyllostachys. Post and wire gives you numerous options - from roses and jasmines to glory vine, ampelopsis, akebia quinata, climbing hydrangeas, tropolaeums, passiflora, clematis and honeysuckles...with a huge number of easy (from seed) and interesting annuals and temporary climbers to amuse you with different additions every year (thunbergia, eccremocarpis, gourds, sweet peas, ipomea, cobaea, runner beans...