Best plants/hedging for screening

Hi all, am new to these forums. Am in desperate need of advice, I need to provide some screening at the bottom of my garden, the garden was block paved (great for a driveway but in a back garden??!). I'e removed all block paving and had to hire a kango to put in flowerbeds etc. At the bottom of the garden the cement goes down a long way and we havent been able to break it, so my step dad has built me a wooden trough planter, very long and deep.

I need something tall to provide screening, was thinking of bamboo but its so expensive, at £30-£40 a plant which gives the height that I need.

Can anyone suggest something that I could use? Preferably a bit cheaper than bamboo but that would grow tall and bushy and fast preferably ???? I'm a complete novice gardener (as you can probably tell!) but very willing to learn !

 

Hi, and welcome to GC.

I guess you've been looking in the big garden centres for those prices. You can get bamboo plants for half that price, and if you're really lucky, you sometimes see them really cheap if they haven't sold after a while. Have a look at this site:

http://www.jparkers.co.uk/c-d/grasses-bamboo/?gclid=CNDxvp3el6cCFYVjfAodWSZOdA

As for alternatives, how tall does it need to be? And does it need to be evergreen or is privacy less of an issue in winter time when you use the garden less?