Quote Originally Posted by Mississippi Steve
I was going to suggest bamboo also... its very prolific in the south, grows pretty tall and dense... but the hard part is controlling the spread of the stuff. Its kind of like kudzu....its sounded like a good idea at the time, but quickly got out of hand. If you already have the bamboo, then thats a no brainer... use it for cover.
A friend grew a ring of Mint plants(Australian origin IIRC) around a plant(think, circle of mint, with a 1M gap in the middle), as mint grows nice and thick.

now his garden is covered in mint, the stuff is like garden cancer, every time you deal with one, six more pop up :wtf:

i have a bamboo in my garden, its a black leaf variety iirc, and its very manageable, i'll take a snap tomorrow.