Hi,

We live in Columbus, OH and are interesting in planting bamboo along
the back of our property to hide a grocery store and it's parking lot.
Currently there is a 6' privacy fence back there and the ground slopes
upward about 1 foot toward the fence, from 1 foot out.

What I'd like to do is plant bamboo along the fence, leveling the
ground out and putting a retaining wall against it. Er, hard to
explain, but basically we'd have an elevated bed (elevated only a foot
or so) with a fence at the back.

First would be the selection of bamboo. We are in roughly the middle
of zone 5, winters tend to be fairly moderate rarely getting below 20
degrees or so. We'd like a variety of bamboo that can grow to at least
15', provide good privacy screening, and survive/stay green year round
in our climate. They will be in full sunlight. Any suggestions?

Secondly, if we do the raised bed to plant them in a raised bed, how
wide will the bed need to be?

Yellow Groove bamboo will do well. Unless the winter is really bad
(like this past winter) it will stay green. Our grove of it is about
16 feet tall and we live on the border of zones 5/6.

You will need to put in a rhizome barrier.

Beetlebau