When the neighbour's second storey went up, you started googling. The shortlist always comes down to the same two: a screen of clumping bamboo, or a classic hedge. Both work. They fail differently — and that's the real basis for choosing.
Where bamboo wins
Footprint and height. Slender Weavers gives six metres of screening from a 40 cm-deep bed — no hedge on earth matches that ratio, which is why bamboo owns the narrow-strip and two-storey problems. It's also the speed king: a 300 mm plant can be over the fence line in its second summer. See the narrow side garden for the full treatment.
Where hedges win
The classic look, the lower height band, and clipped formality. A lilly pilly or viburnum wall reads traditional and holds any height from one metre up, while bamboo only really starts making sense above three. Hedges also flower, flush coloured new growth, and suit period homes in a way bamboo doesn't.
The maintenance truth
A hedge asks for clipping two or three times a year, forever. Bamboo asks for almost nothing — except an annual thin-out of old canes and sweeping leaf drop in the dry months. Neither is 'no maintenance'; they're differently shaped chores. On invasiveness: clumping species like Slender Weavers stay put — the horror stories belong to running bamboo, which we don't sell.
Cost for the same screen
For a two-storey screen, bamboo usually wins on dollars because one plant per metre does what three to four hedge plants do. For a 1.5–2 m boundary hedge, traditional hedging in packs is cheaper. Price both live for your metres: hedge calculator (it includes bamboo), or line them up in the garden pricer.
Our verdict
Two-storey problem, narrow bed, modern house: bamboo. Waist-to-head-height boundary, formal or classic house, love the clipped look: hedge. Big block, both problems: both — they layer beautifully, as in the layered privacy garden. Ranges: bamboo, hedging.