research "clumping bamboo" and the website bamboogarden dot com. Bamboo Garden is near Portland.

The dimensions you want are easy enough to do with bamboo. The stuff can be expensive.

Use of running bamboo will require a massive effort of containment structure or keeping a ditch open around the hedge to keep runners trimmed off.

My experience was that a June wind gust of 15mph was enough to kink over young, tall black bamboo stalks. Also, bamboo sheds from mid-spring to early summer, and the wind will blow the loosened sheaths from the stalk sections toward your neighbors, like trees that shed from mid-autumn to early winter. The sheaths are not as numerous as tree leaves but are tougher and usually larger.

You can buy a root barrier just for bamboo; keep it contained. As for being able to grow it there, do you see any growing in a yard around there? If so, you might be able to get starts from them, and these would be well adapted to your region.

Best Regards,

Jim

The root barrier requires extensive digging, it's like a wide conveyor belt, easy to form to any hedge shape, does not need to be applied in straight line. A power trencher like for installing sprinkler systems would do the job.

Many Portland plantings are plastered right on the front/sides of the house like foundation plants. Never understood it.

The Bamboo Garden may not be that far from where you are.

The Bamboo Gardens is a retail garden center specializing in bamboo. (of course!) It's in North Plains. They are the best local folks to talk to before you decide which bamboo to grow & plant. They also sell the bamboo barrier.

I meant to mention the "sound-deadening qualities of a hedge" that you desire.

That's a tough thing to accomplish. Perhaps the slow splash of a fountain would be useful in masking the sounds you dislike.

Yes, vegetation has little effect on noise. A road in the woods sounds like it is right there when actually some distance away. Wind responsive hedges like bamboo and moving water features mask noises by adding their own sounds rather than reducing them noticeably.

Since bamboo moves in the slightest breeze, it can sound agitated in a windy location, where frequently tossed around for long periods.

I live in Portland, and I have exactly what you describe!

I wish I knew what type it is, but, alas, it was planted by the previous owners. It is a fantastic, clumping, privacy-giving variety that does fine with full sun and wind. So I know it can be done.

In Beaumont, there is a place called Bamboo Craftsman that has a display garden--I would bet they know what you need. I have linked to them below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bamboo Craftsman

The Bamboo Garden folks are very helpful and it's fun to tour their gardens. I've bought most of mine from them and they've done great. I've got one growing in direct sun all afternoon and it has done fine during the hot spells, one they suggested for that situation. The bulk of clumpers like to be shaded from the afternoon sun, but there are some sun tolerant varieties. All of mine are clumpers since I didn't want to deal with the runners. Have fun!

I don't know why everyone is so afraid of running bamboo. I have P. nuda and it has become a nice stand, I cut lots of canes to use as stakes. All it takes is a saw or lopper to cut off a cane, then it is gone permanently. I also have Black and Timber bamboo, they are very slow to get going. I had a clumper and it bloomed and is no more.

I agree with hemnancy that there is no need to fear runners if you will just commit to a little bit of maintenance a couple times per year. I have a stand over 100 feet long of Phyllostachys Aureosulcata 'Spectabilis' to give me privacy from a warehouse that was built south of my home. The bamboo is in full sun and I live in an area that gets high wind. I dug a narrow trench about 12 - 18" deep on the north side of the planting (I don't care if the bamboo runs to the south). The soil where the bamboo is planted was enriched with mint compost and slightly mounded and I mulch the bamboo with grass clippings every time I mow. The rhizomes stay in this upper layer of better soil (heavy clay below) so I can see them when they reach the trench. Several times a year I just check the trench and clip off any wandering rhizomes. My stand is nearly four years old, very healthy and so far easily managed. The trench can be filled with bark if you don't want an open ditch and you can pull a long-handled hay hook through it to snag any wayward rhizomes.

From what I've seen, trenching may be better than barriers because the bamboo roots will eventually place a great stress on the barrier, deforming or escaping it.

The main reason I removed our 22x3 foot grove is it filled with aphids one year and the honeydew rained down on the vegetable plot.

They also get bamboo mites.

I've got a tuft of Phyllostachys aurea 'Koi' that came up about 20' away from the original planting, with no stem growth (in the same direction) between.

I have some Phyllostachys nigra doing the same thing. Since it was a 'clumping' bamboo I used it to block the aurea bamboo from spreading in that direction. A pond and driveway has worked for the other directions. The nigra didn't work.
Given time, it spreads also.
Now I have a serious trench to dig.

My impression is that local plantings of Phyllostachys appearing to be clumping is due to them being held back by unfavorable conditions like drought and infertility. No bamboo with a genetically determined running habit (that's all species of Phyllostachys, Pleioblastus, Sasa, Semiarundinaria...) is a clumping bamboo, when conditions suitable they will all take off. Only true clumping bamboos (Fargesia etc.) never run under any circumstances.

That sounds about right. I didn't know any better then.
I sure do now.

Don't plant a running bamboo unless you are serious about containing it. The Bamboo Garden folks will make it sound like it's no problem and the bamboo forum people will make it sound like a joy. But it involves serious discipline to routinely stay after those rhizomes. You will have to dig down one or two feet around the whole thing at least once a year. Even doing this, in favorable conditions (sufficient moisture) you can easily find that the rhizomes have gone 10 feet beyond your "perimeter" in every direction while completely concealed from view. Unless you're a bamboo enthusiast, I wouldn't bother with them.
Clumping bamboos on the other hand are reasonably safe but can get astonishingly large. I have a Fargesia Robusta that has gotten to be at least 6' in diameter at the base. It is getting close to the eves of my house even though I thought I had planted it plenty far away.