Sense people have already hinted on the grading, I thought I would throw in some ideas. I would see if I could get a climbing vine for the neighboors fence to the right, obviously checking with the neighboor, something like confederate jasmine. I also would look into some red roses to echo the red theme, and check into the new bright red stunning crape myrtle, it would give summer red to the house. I would plant four 2 on one side near the back hiding the siding on the side and 2 on the other kind of staggered with the first one at the front of the porch and the next one behind it. That would hide that hole and add depth making your house look bigger as well as complmenting color. I know you cant get ride of that chain link, but the more you can hide of it the better. Peronsally I think repainting chain link is tedious but worth the effort with oil based rustoleum. I just got through painting a slightly rusted vegtable garden fence in white and it looks insanely good for chain link. I am not recommending that for the front, but possibly for the sides and back, black wouldn't draw your eye to it as easy. You don't have room for shrubs to cover it so thats why I mentined a climbing vine. Keep whatever you plant in the front yard low. Personally I would bring in some bags of soil, about 30$ worth of composted manure, 1 10$ bag of peat, and 2-3 bags of loam, and would plant annual flowers all across the front the 1st year, and then slowly add in perinneal. Its such a small area that wedding would be easy. This would save you from having to mow the weeds. Also 3-5 bags of mulch would go a long way. I mean for under 100$ you could have that entire front bed looking amazing and it would do tons for curb appeal. Maybe its just me but I think a dark purple with hint of red picket fence around the front would look great, You could get a vinyl picket fence and custom paint from lowes. http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=202842-77007-73000930&langId=-1&storeId=10151&productId=3159825&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1 Its 3ft by 8ft. Guessing you would need 4 pieces & gate x26 a pice so thats 140$ish with gate, then about 30 in exterior paint. That would take are of the entire front for 270, new fence, annuals, soil, mulch, and 120 for 4 red really nice crape myrtles and a couple weekends of time. So for about 400$ you could have the entire front street view, side view, front beds, and side beds done with great soil and tons of color/seasonal interest. I am currently doing an area twice that size for about the same price :)

I have a long narrow garden in front of an ugly chainlink, so I understand dealing with the limitations. I suggest you look for plants that grow UP not out. In horticultural terms, this is called "fastigate." Daylilies like sun, but hosta like shade, so bear that in mind. Here are some off the wall ideas, but they are the ones that have worked best for me: A fastigate-ish small japanese maple. In my case, it is called fireglow, and is smaller and more compact than Boodgood. A crab apple, pruned like and espalier. Espalier is a way of pruning small trees to lie flat against a wall or fence, or even make a flat hegde with them. Is not actually difficult if you don't mind a little pruning now and then. Climbing or arching rose bushes, the hardy kind - this is best of all. Robusta junipers, which I have to keep fertilized and pruned to allow them to survive in such a small spot. There are other better fastigate evergreens, like Sky Pencil Holly and DeGroot's Spire Arborvitae, and some yews I have seen. Even a small weeping evergreen could be trained to drape along the fence line. Raspberry bushes, which work great for me because I love the berries!! Honestly if I didn't have the space limitations I have and my plant obsessions, I'd plant some type of small evergreen mixed with arching red roses with bright orange hips in the winter. I have seen several fences like that and they look really nice. These could be mixed in with daylilies, but not hosta due to hosta needing shade.

Hi there! I just came across this discussion because I have a similar problem with an unsightly fence -- and more - next door. In my case, I need something tall and broadleaf to block a view that the douglas firs we planted will eventually block... in about five or six years! I'm thinking of using a hardy Southern Magnolia. If you are right about the abutter having the right to plant a vine on a neighbor's chain link fence, I may consider a Major Wheeler honeysuckle which stays evergreen in zone 6. I wanted to mention, since the subject of invasive plants has been raised, that in the case of Burning Bush or other invasive plants, what makes them invasive is not necessarily that they will sprout up elsewhere on your own property. Many aggressive plants that are also native will do that but they are not considered invasive. What happens with invasive plants, e.g. non-native escapees, is they sprout up in nearby woodlands and roadsides where no one is around to weed them and so they reproduce without any natural controls on them. I have three haggard looking winged eunonymous shrubs growing in my wooded backyard along with escaped Japanese honeysuckle, wineberry, Oriental Bittersweet and mulitiflora rose. There are a couple of Japanese barberry and a Japanese holly back there too. In recent months, I've also been fighting an English Ivy invasion. These invasions are all the result of seeds that either traveled by wind or bird poop into our yard from neighbors' houses in the past twenty years. I intend to weed them all out, but I'm dealing with the worst first: the honeysuckle. Japanese honeysuckle happens to be allelopathic and actively prevents other plants from growing with it. It will also grow in deep shade! By the way, what grows from seed is not the beautiful cultivated variety of the plants I mentioned, it's the weedier looking species variety! If you ever take a walk around the Six Mile Run Reservoir area in NJ in the fall, you'll see pale pink winged euonymous shrubs growing all over the place in the woods, displacing native plants. We can't always see the harm we are doing by planting invasive plants in our gardens. But others get to see it, and the natural environment suffers. Just thought I'd bring it up. I live in a part of NJ that suffers greatly from invasives and it's so hard to keep fighting the good fight. I just found out the arctic kiwi vines I planted last fall are invasive in NJ so now I have to rip them out. How I hate to take the life of a plant : (

I've also seen the following used similarly with great results: Yellow Flowered Honeysuckle Not sure of the name but a neighbor has one that produces lovely, deep green foliage with intensely fragrant flowers; it's covering the front of his garage and each year it manages to climb on top of the roof and cascade over and into my yard until he does his annual pruning. Alba Maxima Rose While this is a one time, four month out of the year bloomer, it grows intensely throughout the year and rather quickly covers just about anything. It has lovely deep green foliage which is offset by a profusion of double white blooms. It will continue to grow with or without any liquid encouragement so a heavy prune every few years is essential as it will grow onto itself. The blooms have a heavenly scent and the entire bush will be flush with beautiful white, double blooms. I have it in a corner and it's completely covered the corner and a portion of my neighbors back cottage (a good 6 feet across and 20+ feet high). And this is having never been taken it out of the pot! Photo: http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.106.0 Morning Glory - Sunrise Serenade While I'm personally a little leery of morning glory as it's very difficult to control once established, unless you get a good freeze, it really does a fine job covering just about anything and the flowers can be stunning. There's a beautiful double pink variety which is quite lovely called Sunrise Serenade which may be worth a look. Photo: http://www.jungseed.com/dp.asp?pID=06589&c=52&p=Sunrise+Serenade+Morning+Glory Pink Jasmine This is another lovely gem that's easy to grow with incredibly fragrant flowers. But this one has much wispier leaves than Star Jasmine, another one of my favorites, and b Climbing Gardenia Although this plant is not easy to obtain, if you can get a few, you'll have the most treasured climber around. It's a gardenia that literally climbs, has the typical glossy green foliage which becomes a nice thick climbing hedge with the most gorgeously fragrant and beautiful flowers. Each year I have to do a massive prune to keep it under control as the branches become quite strong and sturdy - easily drowning out other plants around it. Years ago I obtained a couple at Home Depot and see them sporadically each year. They never last long. Eden Rose, cl I have an Eden rose where I hoped to achieve similar results you're trying to obtain. It worked out splendidly although I had to plant several plants but the end result exceeded my expectations as the rose grow above the height of the fence and blocked out a neighbor's window (and then some) that looked into my yard. The blooms aren't all that fragrant but they are spectacular. The only side problem is the cleanup from the falling petals (which the Alba Maxima does not have) that have to be cleared less they become a bit messy. Photo: http://www.rose-gardening-made-easy.com/pierre-de-ronsard-rose.html Hope that gives some additional ideas to the outstanding suggestions previously made.