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6 Best Bamboo Screening for 2024 | Australian Buying Guide

Bamboo Screening Buying Guide and Product Reviews

Bamboo Screening is a great way to add texture to fences, as well as adding often needed privacy to your private oasis. Using bamboo for privacy is a cheap and effective way of blocking out neighbouring windows and traffic noise, while still letting gentle filtered light through the bamboo lattice. 

It’s also a simple way to create space for climbing plants which only makes them more attractive. In this article, I want to share some ideas, and some guidance based on my own garden, which backs on to a public footpath, and a small block of retirement flats. 

While I don’t begrudge our local pensioners their views into our garden (we specifically hang bird feeders in the tree closest to the flats because we know they enjoy watching the local wildlife), the sense of security added by the bamboo privacy screen when we go about our daily chores is always nice.

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Best Bamboo Screening for 2024

Product


Our Rating

Price

1. VidaXL Outdoor Bamboo Fence

2. Eden Bamboo Screening

3. PLMOKN Bamboo Fence Screening Panel

4. WWW Garden Bamboo Screening Fence

5. VidaXL Bamboo Privacy Screen

6. HL-Fence Expanding Garden Bamboo Trellis

Choosing the right bamboo screening for your garden is essential. Bamboo comes in all sorts of colours and widths, meaning you can really tailor your screen to the plants in your garden, or match it to the tone of your other fences for more subtle screens.

The other major consideration is cost. In the next few sections I’ll try to break down the varieties of bamboo, the types of screening, and how to install them for maximum impact and security.

Types of Bamboo Screening

First, let’s get to grips with the different types of bamboo screening. There are four major variations in bamboo screening; planed bamboo; whole bamboo; bamboo trellis; expanding bamboo trellis.

  • Planed bamboo is the best money saving option, as for every bamboo stem harvested for manufacturing the fence, you get around 3cm of fence. 
  • With whole bamboo using young shoots, every stem harvested will make around 1cm of fence. Both options are usually fairly cheap, but the coat can vary greatly depending on the thickness of bamboo.

    But what you’re willing to pay makes a huge difference in the impact the fence will have on your garden.
  • Bamboo trellis is a great money saving option, usually supplied with thicker stems for more durable bamboo screening, but also for a higher impact – especially in gardens that are trying to achieve an oriental look.

    Trellis needs proper installation though as it won’t hold up to the wind in the same way as screening.
  • The cheapest option by far is expanding bamboo trellis, which won’t give you instant impact, but is a great money saving way to install a bamboo privacy screen, as long as you’re willing to wait for plants to grow through it.

How to Choose the Best Quality Bamboo Screening

Black bamboo, red bamboo and yellow bamboo are all durable enough to withstand wind, the weight of plants and the occasional football being kicked at them.

I prefer black bamboo for the contemporary darkness it adds to the back of our garden (traditionally, white was said to make gardens seem bigger, but black creates an endlessness to spaces, particularly when the colour comes from natural materials.

The best measure of the quality of bamboo screening is the thickness of each stem in the screen. Planed bamboo is the weakest, so for fences that need added security, always spend a bit more and go for the thicker bamboo screening.

Using Bamboo for Privacy

Creating a bamboo privacy screen is a great way to block out nosey neighbours without upsetting them. The great benefit of cheap bamboo screens is that they are lightweight, so depending on planning permissions in your part of Australia, can be attached to the fence to add extra height.

The other option, where you don’t already have a fence in place, is to install fence posts, and use wire to attach them around your garden boundary. Creating this kind of bamboo fence screening is a great way to boost privacy, but keep light coming into the garden.

Using Bamboo for Climbing Plants

Bamboo trellis, particularly the adaptable expanding bamboo trellis is a wonderful natural way to add height to the garden, but for long lengths of fence, adding a normal bamboo privacy screen can do the same job.

Plants like Virginia Creeper will crawl through the gaps between the bamboo and grow into a dense crimson mat along your fence with no need to train them at all.

Because of the way most bamboo screen is built, there are loads of wires to tie twine to, if you want to grow roses or high maintenance climbers to your bamboo fence.

How to Install Bamboo Screening

Depending on where you are putting it, there are three really easy ways to install bamboo screening.

Installing Bamboo Fence Screening or Bamboo Trellis 

If you are attaching to an existing fence or post, simply roll the screen out along the fence (being careful not to damage any plants in the border in front of the fence), and use garden wire, or galvanised steel wire to tie the bamboo privacy screen to the fence. This gives your garden an instant facelift without any tools.

Installing Bamboo Privacy Screen

If you want to add height to existing fences, then installation is the same as above, but along each fence panel, secure a tanalised or treated length of timber (the same width as your fence) horizontally around 1m below the top of the fence.

Roll out the bamboo screen along the fence, and with someone to help you, lift it onto the batten. Then all you need to do is tie it to the batten at the bottom, and put some screws at the top of the fence so you have something to tie to at the top.

This is the method we’ve used in our own garden and it has lasted years.

Installing a Bamboo Fence

To install a self-standing bamboo fence, choose a thick bamboo that can hold up to pressure and won’t sag. First, bury fence posts the same height as your bamboo screen, and set them in fast drying concrete (always use a spirit level).

One they have set in place, just screw or tie the fence panel to the posts (most concrete is fully set in 1 hour in warm weather).

Bamboo Screening Reviews

1. VidaXL Outdoor Bamboo Fence

It might seem overpriced when compared to the size of the Eden bamboo screening, but the VidaXL Bamboo Fence is much more durable, made from whole bamboo stems, rather than planed bamboo stems.

The round stems also add an honest texture to your walls and fences that can’t be duplicated with cheaper planed bamboo.

Pros

  • Much more natural than the look than the planed bamboo by Eden
  • Full bamboo shoots make it much more durable than planed bamboo
  • 1.7m tall so will give good privacy in overlooked part of the garden

Cons

  • Much more expensive than planed bamboo – but this does increased durability

2. Eden Bamboo Screening

Eden Bamboo Screening, sold exclusively at Bunnings, is made from 100% renewable materials by a trusted brand. It’s the best value option in our review selection too, covering a huge 1.8m height, by 3m across.

Pros

  • Great value for quick coverage
  • Easy to install, with wire, ties or posts
  • 1.8 x 3m
  • Eden are a trusted brand

Cons

  • Low visual impact

3. PLMOKN Bamboo Fence Screening Panel

Together with its chunky bamboo, and its galvanised iron, this is the most beautiful and most substantially sturdy bamboo screen we’ve reviewed. 

Ok, so it’s expensive and its coverage is limited, but if you want instant impact in the garden, and need it to feel natural, with a clear nod to the natural habitats of bamboo, then the PLMOKN bamboo fence panel is the only real choice.

Pros

  • Really easy to install, either on wires or posts
  • The most natural looking in this list of bamboos, including black and red varieties give a real forest feel to this screen
  • Really sturdy mix of thick bamboo shoots for instant and lasting impact

Cons

  • Expensive for the coverage
  • Just 1m tall, but useful for attaching to posts over fences to give a natural privacy screen

4. WWW Garden Bamboo Screening Fence

If you want to brighten up your garden, then white bamboo might be the way to go. Like the PLMOKN screen, the bamboo screen from WWW is more expensive, but makes up for that in quality and stability, with better coverage than most privacy screens made from mature bamboo.

Pros

  • Sturdy when installed, and really simple to attach to pots, or add battens to create a self-standing fence
  • Beautiful screening, or divider for any garden
  • Chunky mature bamboo rods give improved durability, and will last for years before showing any real signs of wear

Cons

  • Much more expensive, due to mature bamboo, but the only option if you want a more authentic screen
  • Just 1.2m tall, meaning it will look great, but not add privacy

5. VidaXL Bamboo Privacy Screen

The VidaXL bamboo screen is the less durable planed bamboo, similar to the Eden bamboo screening, but runs 4m in length.

Personally, I prefer the colour of this bamboo to the white bamboo used by Eden, but it comes with the disadvantage of a lower height, which is perfect for raised screening, but not great for fence panels.

Pros

  • Easy to install with wires or ties
  • Good quality planed bamboo

Cons

  • Low visual impact, but brightens up a space
  • Expensive per metre
  • 1.5m height means it won’t give full privacy in urban gardens

6. HL-Fence Expanding Garden Bamboo Trellis

The free-standing trellis from HL-Fence is a similar and adaptable solution for bamboo screening. As well as being expandable, it has the option to be used as a self-standing picket fence, or attached to the top of an existing fence to climb plants through for a natural looking privacy screen.

Pros

  • Easy to install, either as a self-standing divider, or fence topper
  • Natural stain gives it a neat uniformity

Cons

  • Expensive for the coverage, but adaptable
  • Only 75cm tall, so the shortest product on review here

Best Bamboo Screening Australia

Aussie Green Thumb's Top Rated

For value, visual and ease of install, the Vida XL Bamboo Fence gets our Best Buy title. For such great coverage and a screening that could last for up to 20 years it really can’t be beaten.

I also like the adaptability of this bamboo screen, which is substantial enough to make an impact, but not so chunky that it would be challenging to install.

Bamboo Screening Best Value

OK, so the Eden Bamboo Screening might not last forever, but for about $8 per metre it's such good value that you don’t need to worry about getting things wrong and experimenting with different placements.

The entire bamboo panel and all its fittings are renewable, compostable and sustainable too, which is more than can be said about some others. Sometimes cheap and cheerful is what you need.

Bamboo Screening Premium Choice

It might be expensive but I actually think the PLMOKN Bamboo Screening Fence Panel is great value. The sturdy mature bamboo is held together with durable galvanised iron wire, drilled through the bamboo rather than wrapped around it, which helps to keep a good level while installing too.

Bamboo Screening FAQs

Is Bamboo screening sustainable?

Yes, bamboo screening is a very sustainable product. So much so that most sustainable gardening uses this type of screening. In fact, many kitchen and homeware manufacturers have begun using bamboo ply as a replacement for harvested timber as bamboo requires no reseeding.

And, if allowed to grow to maturity, will regrow within a few years once harvested, actually benefiting the environment in the process. Bamboo screen is even more sustainable, given the reduced manufacturing processes involved in its production.

What is bamboo?

Bamboo is a giant grass which originated in china. While it will grow anywhere in the world, it can be an incredibly invasive plant, so if you ever consider growing a bamboo hedge, make sure to look for clumping bamboo. 

How long will bamboo screen last?

A well-made bamboo screen will last at least 15-20 years, and you can prolong its lifetime with timber care products specifically manufactured for bamboo.

Install the Best Bamboo Screening For Your Home

Personally, I prefer bamboo screening to standard fence panels. It looks more natural, and lasts longer and most bamboo screening costs less per metre of fence than purpose made fence panels.

There are more types of fencing for anyone worried about how bamboo looks, as it can accidentally change the look of a garden, particularly if you’re aiming for a cottage style garden or an Australian prairie garden, in which case willow screening or wicker screening might be better for you.

Either way, the tips in this article for how to install bamboo fencing, and the differences between bamboo privacy screening, bamboo trellis, bamboo fencing, and bamboo fence screening should serve as useful whatever materials you use to build your new privacy bamboo screening.

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