Perhaps being new to Iowa (And welcome, by the way), you can temper your revulsion to chain link fencing. While I agree with your assessment, chain link fencing is often seen with a different eye in the Midwest. Many folks will beam with pride while touting their new installation of a chain link fence -- a beautiful improvement in their eyes.
Yes, it is a regional thing; but it is very real. I'm sure that many forum lurkers are somewhat puzzled by your comments and believe that your fence has been damaged or is in poor condition.

I suspicion that the difference in regional perceptions has a lot to do with crime rates. Here, we put up chain link fences to keep the kids and the dog in the yard. In more populated areas of the country, chain link is the fencing of choice to keep out criminals.

Anyway ... all that I am trying to say is that your neighbors probably don't think the chain link fence looks nearly as bad as you do. :-)

IronBelly

Calypso,
There are many vining flowers that would love the support of a chain link fence and would hide it to some extent. Morning glories, vining sweet peas....and speaklng of peas you might want to consider growing a few vegetables also. With a little "training" you could grow cucumbers and pole beans as well as peas with the fence's support. Or how about a row of sunflowers. The options are endless...have fun planting and hope you enjoy Iowa!
SOS

Welcome to IA as well! I recently moved from So. Cal as well but am originally from the mid-west.

I would suggest sunflowers, glads, and zinnias. All easy to grow - sunflowers & zinnias from seed and glads from corms. You could even do a sunflower boarder with taller varieties in the back and staggering shorter ones in front. Some tall ornamental grasses (some are annuals - like purple millet grass) might look nice as well.

Ironbelly - I laughed when I read your assessment of chainlink fences. So true. My experience living in a hot dry climate is that a lot of people don't keep up their yards due to the cost of water and don't know other ways to maintain an attractive yard with low water usage. A chainlink fence in a neighborhood like that can spoil one's view! Not to mention people usually are not as friendly as here and everyone likes their privacy.

Welcome to Iowa! I hate chain link fences, too, and I'm a native. But I've been toying with buying a used gate or something to make a trellis out of.

The only thing to do with them is cover them up. On one of the main drags, one person's entire fence is completely covered with different colors of morning glories. Sweet peas are lovely, too, but I doubt they would cover the fence as well as morning glories (which can get out of control as they self-seed).

I'm into roses right now, so you might want to think of a few vigorous, repeat-blooming climbers and train them on the fence.

There are two other outdoor things people build here that uglify their property, those decks with the treated wood and skinny rails, very ubiquitous, also rough-sawn board fences that are vertical and staggered from one side of the other side of the post.

Chain link is about the only choice if you have dogs to confine. I do like those board panels with the lattice tops and also the board fences that dip down and back up from post to post. The new plastic fences seem unnatural but very practical. I love pretty fences and beautifully landscaped yards.

If you dislike it that much, take it out (try to find a Habitat Restore place to recycle it or run an ad as used ones seem to sell well), and if you can't afford to replace with it with something you like, start some pretty plants or do something else creative instead. I've gotten some marvelous ideas on the old garden roses forum, such beautiful fences, trellises and structures I've never seen before except in magazines. If you can DIY, they are not as expensive as a chain link fence.

originally from iowa but live outside of boston now, so you can take my advice with a grain of salt :0)

on the chain link fence along the shady side of the yard i'm training a couple of one-day-will-be-massive climbing hydrangeas (their mother was a beast that ate a whole tree).

on the sunnier street side, i rotate a swath of annual climbers -- one year it was awesome heavenly blue morning glories (they don't reseed, so yay), last year it was pole beans & overly-orange nasturtiums (vivid!), this year it's going to be soft yellow climbing nasturtiums fronted by red sunflowers.

embrace your chain link fence (well, not literally) and have fun with it. best of luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1001128}}

we planted canary vine last year on ours and it did very well the leaves are unique and flowers different. They can be started from seed