When it comes to creating your own private oasis, using bamboo plants to create an eco-friendly, versatile and inexpensive bamboo privacy hedge is a great solution that requires very little maintenance. When compared to the costs and expenses of obtaining permits, buying materials and the labor required to build a privacy fence, learning how to make a bamboo privacy hedge is versatile and relatively inexpensive solution to creating the privacy you need without the hassle.
Choosing The Right Bamboo
Like most hedge plant varieties, some bamboo plants require more maintenance than others. However, when you choose the right bamboo plants for a privacy hedge, there will be very little maintenance required. Learning how to make a bamboo privacy hedge is easy and can even be fun, just as long as you follow a few basic guidelines for choosing the right bamboo.
Running Or Clumping Bamboo
For starters, there are 2 basic types of bamboo plants: running and clumping bamboo. Running bamboo requires a great deal of time and maintenance, which is why it is rarely ever used for privacy screening. Clumping bamboo on the other hand, is relatively easy to maintain and grows in round clumps that range in diameter from 3 feet to 8 feet or more, and when placed in a row they create an easy to manage privacy screen, fence or hedge.
Nearly any clumping bamboo in our inventory can be used to create a privacy hedge, however, there are a few that stand out due to their special qualities. Determining which one is best suited to your needs really depends on just how much privacy you want.
Golden Hawaiian Bamboo
Golden Hawaiian Bamboo is a great choice for an open clump, green screen look. In addition, its beautiful golden yellow culms featuring delicate green strips are always an excellent conversation piece.
While they can only withstand a minimum temperature of 27 degrees Fahrenheit, Golden Hawaiian Bamboo is a favorite choice for creating a bamboo privacy hedge. This is due to the open clumping form that provides a perfect green screening effect, and its fast growth rate.
Golden Hawaiian Bamboo can easily be contained at any height and pushes up culms that are 12 to 18 inches apart (which technically become 'canes' once they have been cut). This way it provides a great green screen of foliage without completely blocking or obscuring the view.
The roots grow throughout the winter and new shoots spring up between April and August, which means that if your planting after August you can expect to see new shoots in April. However, this fast grower will provide a fully mature green screen within 3 to 5 years.
Seabreeze Bamboo
If you want to know how to make a bamboo privacy hedge that provides complete screening, then there is one bamboo that is perfect for the job - Seabreeze Bamboo. Also known as Bambusa Malingensis, Seabreeze Bamboo is not only one of the most popular bamboos for privacy screening and hedges, but it is also one of the best.
As one of the most salt tolerant bamboos, Seabreeze is the go-to choice for landscapers, as well as anyone else looking to use bamboo screening as part of their landscaping design. In fact, we always keep thousands of these in stock for large commercial accounts, mansion landscapers, high end gated communities and more, due to its rapid growth and the fast privacy it offers.
Seabreeze Bamboo requires very little maintenance, with nothing more than some yearly fertilizer and regular watering, they will quickly provide a fully opaque privacy hedge. One of the reasons that Seabreeze makes such an excellent living green screen in so short time is the numerous lateral branches that that it grows.
Like Golden Hawaiian, and most bamboo varieties, Seabreeze spends the winter growing roots underground and grows like crazy throughout the warmer months. In fact, we currently have a few hundred Seabreeze bamboo plants for sale from last year's batch. These bamboo plants are absolutely bursting out of their 3 gallon pots and boasting 12 foot culms, which would practically make an instant privacy hedge.
Controlling The Height Of Any Bamboo
What many people don't know is that it is super easy to control the height of any bamboo variety. This is especially useful when it comes to controlling the height of a bamboo privacy fence or hedge. While many bamboo varieties can reach maximum heights of 35 feet, or even twice that, they can be trimmed to stay at any height you choose.
You can trim bamboo without a ladder simply by bending it parallel to the ground and clipping the head, once the head is clipped it wont grow anymore. Once trimmed, the bamboo culms will never grow past that height. However, new culms will have to be trimmed once they reach the desired height. This makes it easier than ever to maintain a perfect bamboo privacy hedge at 6, 8 or 12 feet...or whatever height you want!
Spacing For The Perfect Screen
Creating a bamboo privacy hedge is not nearly as complicated as it may sound. Aside from determining what type of bamboo to use, the next biggest choice is deciding how far apart to space them. Placing them closer together will help to create a fully opaque green screen in less time, while spacing them further apart will take longer to provide a complete screen and (depending on the bamboo variety used) may provide more of an open look.
Determining how to make a bamboo privacy hedge really boils down to choices, and depends on the look and time frame that your aiming for. In Florida and Texas, you can expect to see our clump bamboo shooting new culms from around April through November.
For example, planting your bamboo 4 feet apart will create a really fast privacy screen. At 4 foot, Seabreeze Bamboo will form a complete screen within the first 12 months (provided the proper care). In some cases, we have seen customers plant a Seabreeze Bamboo hedge in May and have a 12 foot tall plants by September!
Depending on your preferences, you may also choose to plant your clump bamboo further apart to save money. Planted at 6 foot apart, it will take a little longer for your bamboo hedge to completely fill in, but will form a tight hedge within 3 years. Planting your clump bamboo further than 6 foot apart will leave spaces in the final bamboo hedge, however, for a more 'screened' look this is a good thing.
Just to help you with some of the math here...if you were to plant a clump bamboo privacy hedge, with each plant being placed 6 foot apart, then it would only take you 7 plants to create a 42 foot long row!
Take Advantage Of This Amazing Deal Now!
Right now we are clearing out our inventory to make room for next year's new plants! You can get our 3 gallon potted Seabreeze Bamboo plants that are just bursting out of their containers for $29.95 each!
So, for less than $215 you can create your own clump bamboo privacy hedge that is over 40 feet long and anywhere between 8 to 30 feet tall!
What could be better than this? Right now, add any item from our Bamboo Fertilizers and Soil Amendments Collection to your cart and use the discount code: GrowHealthyBamboo5 to receive an additional $5 OFF!
photo credit: bamboo fence via photopin (license)
photo credit: Racing Stripe Bamboo via photopin (license)