Yes, bamboo can be an excellent choice, both as a noise buffer and as a privacy screen. The ideal way to buffer street sounds is to interpose a solid (or nearly solid) mass between your home and the street, as explained in my FAQ on noise barriers. A bamboo privacy hedge can form just such a mass, because its canes grow together so densely, by nature. It also offers the benefit of being able to do the job at a break-neck speed, relatively speaking: no traditional hedgerow plant would allow you to erect so much mass, so quickly.
A word of warning, though: when you buy plants for your bamboo privacy hedge, make sure the plants are labeled as "clumping" bamboos, as opposed to "running" bamboos. The latter give bamboo a bad name, due to their proclivity to spread out of control.
One cold-hardy clumping bamboo that would be a great choice for either a noise buffer or a screen that will make your yard more private is Fargesia rufa. Reputed to be a fast grower, Fargesia rufa tolerates more sun than many of the other cold-hardy clumping varieties (although I’d still try to make sure it received some afternoon shade in the summer). Space the plants for your bamboo privacy hedge / noise buffer about 5 feet apart to form a hedge. They’ll reach 8 feet in height.
So far, so good. You've learned some of the basics in this series of FAQs about having fun with bamboo in the landscape. But what happens when you discover you have a running bamboo on your land, and it's out of control? That's the subject of the next FAQ: bamboo eradication....
