Anyone have experience with Bamboo?

So I live in zone 4. On the warmer side of zone 4 I think. And I want to do a japanese garden. I live in an ugly area and share a lawn with my obnoxious neighbors. I'm wondering if cold hardy bamboo is a good idea, and if so, running or clumping? I've read some conflicting information. Clumping is supposed to be good because it's less invasive, but bad because it gets unsightly dead stalks in the middle that you can't get rid of without cutting new growth. And the roots are more invasive because they will break through hard structures like concrete. I've been led to believe that running bamboo is a bad choice because it spreads like crazy and is hard to control and your neighbors will hate you. But I've also read that it's a better privacy screen and is easy to keep maintained and under control. That new stalks are easy to kick down because they are soft with an abundance of water. But is this extremely time consuming?

Can anyone with experience growing bamboo shed some light on this for me?

I have golden bamboo and have had it since 1983. It is a running bamboo, but there are some tricks that have worked for me to keeping it in check. Don't water it or anywhere near it once established. If you do it will search out water and head for lusher territory) Put it against a path or mow around it regularly (my dogs run hard along that part of the property line). Watch around the edges, the runners are often near the surface before they head underground and you can see them and pull them up. The last and most important is once it is sending up sufficent stalks to harvest, harvest, harvest. Bamboo is really useful in the garden, and friends and strangers can use the poles.

My bamboo was always contained until the rental next door stopped mowing their lawn five years ago and they weren't real friendly (actually a little scary) so I stopped watching the fence line. New clumps started in the neighboring yard. It is still in check in my yard.

Golden bamboo does occasionally set seed and all the plants in an area will die. (Happened here in 1984 and my plants were small so I kept the seed heads picked. Happened in 2001 in Vancouver, B.C. area)

I have heard of bamboo putting holes in fish pond liners, so I am not sure plastic liner would work, but I don't have any experience with that. The bamboo does really like water so maybe it could smell the water. Laughing

I really use my bamboo a lot and still like it after all these years. Stew Face 1

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~Jewell
If a you have but two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one to sustain your life, and a flower with the other to give you a reason to live. ~Chinese Proverb