oops, can't see your picture :(

Here is another photo, the deck wasn't level at that time so ignore the slight slant!

Here is the picture from the original post, hopefully it works this time!

I have been enjoying "Fall outdoor decor" photos on Pinterest, there are tons of great ideas.

Where are you and what, if anything, will go in the gravel?
What is planned for the dirt area in front? You need something green in the picture. Do you have views? what direction does the house face?

Please ignore my dirty door and dying flowers. It's been a rough couple of weeks! Ha!

@Junco that is an old photo from earlier this spring. What is dirt in front is now grass. We have a few trees in the yard now. I live in the boonies of South Dakota literally in the corner of a bean/corn field. Our house faces southeast our driveway is gravel but connects to the highway in front of our house. Across the highway is a pasture and some cows. I have other photos I took just a few days ago to send to our landscaper. I am trying to find them now. I will post them when I do find them!

It is a very pretty deck! Can you post dimensions? I'm having a hard time figuring out how you could make a seating arrangement without it having to stare at the front door.

For some reason my other photos are missing. I will take some new ones tomorrow morning. We have pretty much nothing in our yard right now. We have a circle driveway and there's nothing in the circle either. We've been here for almost 3 years now and I feel like we just moved in yesterday, everything is going SO SLOW!

The dimensions are 10 x 14' wide. Man i hate looking at these pictures. We had to hire a really bad landscaper to do our rockwork and he didnt follow the plan our original landscaper had. I walked out and there was ALL that rock right there on the right, next to the house and he refused to fix it. There's supposed to be a semi-circle of grass right off the walkway. It is so distracting.

Here is looking SE.

I know nothing about plants that grow in your zone, but I would believe you have a lot of snow. Can you plant some evergreens in the area to the left of the steps? In the interim, I'd put some pots of evergreens in those corners to give some height and fill in and maybe one at the bottom left of the step. Then add some additional pots of evergreens you can move indoors or in your garage in the winter.

Instead of a single chair on the deck, try a small bench against the far left rail. I don't think you'll have much room for much else except a couple of pots on either side of the door and maybe one other on the opposide side of the bench. But make sure you have some height to the plants in the pot by the door and underplant them with colorful annuals in the spring so they will stand out. You have some pretty plants on your plant stand already.

Looking SSW

Looking straight onto the deck from the base of the stairs.

Straight at the door.

That's the last of the pics unless you guys want more!

Wow. What a spot. Who wouldn't want to have coffee out there?

I think you need some kind of hedge to hide the opening between the ground the the deck, so I'm going to once again suggest planting some ornamental grasses there, including one in the small area to the right of the steps, grasses that are in the 5-feet tall range, so up to the top of the railing.

They are pretty, would add some texture to the landscaping, and they are so easy to maintain (cut them down in late winter/early spring, and that's it!).

Also, for that area, you'd only have to buy maybe two grasses. You can break them up into three pieces, so six pieces, and plant them and they'll grow beautifully. No need to buy six!

This post was edited by Tibbrix on Fri, Sep 5, 14 at 10:36

outsideplaying, I really like the bench idea. I was contemplating something like that. Thanks so much for the advice on the planters with height. I never would have thought of that.

What about the stairs - Should there be anything at the top of the stairs (on either side) and/or the bottom?

Tibbrix - Thanks for the ideas! I too like the grass idea. Out landscaper is coming back up hopefully this fall to help us figure out the rest of the plants around our home and he had mentioned something like that, or a bush. Our original rock plan for in front of those steps was supposed to look like this. We had to hire a local landscaper to do the rockwork and he didnt follow the plan so we are stuck with that big mass of rock in front. I just put a bunch of plants in because they were going to die. I did put a bush that should get some decent height to the right of the steps (under the window) to kind of hide that hole there. I'm seriously contemplating just redoing it all and having my husband do the rock the way it was meant to be done. Ugh! I just need one of you guys to come here for a couple months and help me figure all of this out. I am so overwhelmed!

{{!gwi}}

Whoops photo didnt post.

I wouldn't put anything on either side of the steps. You want that clear for safe passage with no obstacles.

A couple of lights, facing each other, on the walls that face each other outside of the door would be good.

I would just move the chairs and table to center them on the side you have them. Then I would add a not too wide garden shelf structure on the wall next to the door and put some color on it. Something like this:

I agree with a bench and I'd get one with a back and sunbrella-covered cushions in a colorful print. Maybe faux/outdoor wicker? If you have space, a small end table next to it? Then a big plant in a large planter where you have it now, but in a new planter that coordinates with the color of the bench. I think you need some color there, since the house is all neutral you could do almost anything.

Home Decorators has a wicker loveseat as well as a nice looking metal one, but the metal one only comes with a beige cushion.

I love the shelf idea!

Are these too bold for next to the door? They come in white, beige or black. I figure if I get white I could paint them eventually if I needed to.

Love that planter for your deck! Perfect.

This is not a landscaping issue, but I'd like to point out that in both photos which show the area to the left of the single door (not the front door on the deck, but the door in/near the garage), there looks to be a problem either with the lowest piece of siding, or with whatever is behind it.

The problem is clearest in the Sep 4, 14 at 21:34 photo.

The lowest piece of siding sticks out farther from the wall -- or maybe the wall isn't straight -- in two places. This is obvious from the deeper shadows in those areas.

One of the problem areas is directly under the small double window. The other area is between the first area and the single door on the right.