Could I grow a bamboo screen in this size container?

It's an odd narrow shape to attempt to grow something in but its all the room I can spare in an alley where I'm hoping to put several of these. As you can see each one is very narrow but does have a total volume of nearly 354 litres (each). I was hoping to grow a bit of a narrow bamboo screen that needs to be another 1.2 - 1.5m above the soil in the planter so I'm not looking for a massive height above soil level).



Very rough work in progress design/drawing so far but this is the general idea:



You can see the start of the alley in this photo, the whole wall used to have a nice thick Ivy on top that was about 10ft tall in total until a new neighbor moved in and ripped it all out! I stuck some trellis on top to soften the look a little while I figure out some kind of screen:



Old Ivy (crappy old estate agent photo from before I bought the house), this was a great natural screen but unfortunately it was all grown from the neighbors side and obviously the new owner didn't like it for some reason, he now gets to look at my wall since he ripped it all out:



If this at all possible in the volume I'm looking at, what sort of bamboo do I need, something with green canes that wont clump up too thick in the alley?

I was planning on something like a pond liner in there to protect the wood from rotting but with holes in the bottom to let the water out and about 150-200mm of coarse gravel down the bottom to also aid with drainage. Really not into a fake or dead screen, would much prefer it to be living.

 

You may get some advive as to which variety from a well established country garden center. The growing provision you are thinking about would be fine. I have bamboo here and it is easy to manage, about 6 or 7 ft tall. I don't know the variety but it grows in a very dry spot, photo if needed. My neighbour has a more whispy variety growing in pots. This would suit you. I could ask ?

 

Well that's sounds positive thank you. And yes any photos and info on varieties would be great as I currently have no idea which is which.

 

I will see him later and reply.

 

Thank you, no rush obviously.

 

This is my Neighbours Bamboo not sure of variety. Quite vigourous from Morrisons and still available. He says you can split it up to make more plants each year 6 ft or so high treat it like a hedge.

 

Thank you, that looks like the sort of thing that would work for me. I'll take a look down Morrisons.

 

A lot of fargesias will work in a trough, I have rufa, black pearl, a few with chinese type names which I can't pronounce, also phllyostachys bissettii will just about be ok. This isn't going to be a one season fix.
They will never achieve their full height being restricted even after they've got themselves settled, four + years or so.

 

Good show

 

One thing about the container and its strength, be very careful that the type of bamboo you get does not blow the contained area out and you or your neighbour have to start afresh with the screen.