I would get Yellow Groove bamboo. The culms are very closely spaced, only thing that will make it through is small squirrels etc.

The safest and easiest way would be to buy clumping bamboo so you don't have to worry about stopping it from running. There are several varieties that will get over 6' tall pretty quickly, I often see several varieties close to that range in the Portland area. You could use the bathtubs with running bamboo, but they'd probably get really swampy in the winter, which would be tough on them. Or you can buy bamboo membrane, which is what I've done, but that takes a lot of work (trenching 3' down, for starters), and still requires some upkeep over time.

How long a fence? If it's of any size, you're facing the classic choice: 1) spend a bunch of money on clumpers, because they expand rather slowly, or 2) spend less on fewer runners since they will spread and fill in faster than clumpers. In case 1 you're looking at a fair amount of money for an instant privacy fence; in case 2 you're looking at installing bamboo barrier all along the fenceline and doing rhizome pruning for the stuff that wants to grow too far into your yard. Chusqueas are nice bamboo, but have you figured out how much it would cost to plant one every several feet along the fence line? Many bamboo grow quite well in Portland, so there are a lot of choices. If you need some names of reliable bamboo nurseries in Oregon, email me.

I had written off bamboo, but I'm considering it again en lieu of installing motorized drop down privacy screens on my patio cover that I have been quoted from $3.5K to $7K to install. For much less than $3K should I be able to put some kind of containers against approximately 30 ft of fence pictured at the beginning of this thread that will allow me to plant super-fast growing running bamboo, while also making it physically impossible for them to get out of control? I would like something that will be low maintenance and will grow to a height of 15 feet or more and be thick enough to block the view down into my patio from the neighbor's upstairs window within a short period of time. I need something that grows pretty much straight up without much of of it hanging down or sticking out into the limited space of the patio. Can they be planted in the largest containers to start or do they have to be started in small containers and repeatedly transferred to larger and larger containers as they grow larger? I'm thinking of getting beds raised at least 3 feet so it will raise the planting level so that they have a head start to reaching the height required over the 6 ft fence required for the privacy screen effect. Container This will be in the Sacramento, California area.