In some of the new construction here (in Switzerland, believe it or not) they use a 1.5' wide bed of Bamboo for the length of area needed. Bamboo can quickly get out of hand if not bedded right, I think, and grows REALLY fast.

If you plant the bamboo between your shrubs (move them forward into your yard a foot or so) and let the shrubs slow-grow, the bamboo will have room to power-grow. Eventually the shrubs will grow into the bamboo's area and the bamboo can be thinned out or gotten rid of. The bonus: If your neighbor does not control his side of the bamboo, he will not have room for his junk!

Just an uneducated idea on what a friend did!

Tschuss!
B

There's some more compact varieties too if you want that layered appearance. I found a link for you that I also found interesting!

I disagree with your opinion that fertilizer spikes are an ineffective and expensive way to fertilize buddleia. Possibly where you are? Certainly not here. It depends what you want,I guess. We want - and now have - a 20' tall, full, reliable screen that produces countless deep purple 1-foot-plus-long blooms all season and is also a hummingbird and butterfly magnet. In the wild (without fertilizing) they look weed-like with sparse, small blooms.

Considering the fertilizer spikes we use are 20 cents apiece (we use five of them) and we have a 100% privacy screen covered in blooms to block an unsightly yard across the road, I don't feel that is either expensive or ineffective.

BTW, we live rurally and the specimens I'm talking about were dug up for free(with the owner's permission) from a lot about to be bulldozed to build a house. They grow wild here and we like to naturalize as much as possible . I wouldn't dream of putting them in my rose garden or other more cultivated areas. As a perimeter screen, they have worked perfectly. I guess what constitutes a "pest" is in the eye of the beholder.

Best wishes,

Sue

I was just going to add to the list for layering or mixed borders - flowering almond, burning bush, alpine currant, viburnum, Northern Lights series of azaleas. The only problem I see with lilacs close to the fence is that ultimately they will arch over the fence into the neighbor's.

Look into some of the other types of conifers; some of the newer cold hardy boxwood. Drawbacks would be relatively slow growth or, in the case of some of the conifers, potential monsters down the line.

People who don't live here will find something lacking in any type of plant material that posters mention, but oddly enough, much of it works when at least zone appropriate and succeeds despite sun/shade conditions, etc. thought to be less than ideal - not to mention a backdrop of limbed spruce (old Norways?)

In agreement with duluthinbloom's suggestion regarding viburnum - my parents' garden (eastern Canada) had a privacy screen that was a beautiful combination of lilacs and "snowball bush". It is hardy to zone 3 and was a lovely companion to those lilacs, for height, contrast and a season (berries and foliage) that extends beyond the blooming season.

Maybe check out (if you haven't already) the Minnesota Gardening forum; some have had success with certain types of bamboo in your zone. Don't forget there are two types of bamboo: clumping (non-invasive) and running (highly invasive). Also for some foliage interest/contrast there are some ornamental grasses that you can also consider and there's a forum for that on gardenweb, too.