Some sort of screening shrubs would be good, but what zone are you in, so appropriate plants can be suggested?

I think some of that white rock would have looked nice on the side of the house, where the air conditioning unit is located.

Shrubbery was outdated. I'm planting seed for grass around sandbox and more. Potentially thinking box shrubs around deck. Live in Michigan. No More White Rock! Lol. Thx you all.

I live in Ohio and we are in the same zone! There are so many flowers and greenery that can be planted to make the area around the deck really beautiful! Hostas and ground covers would also be pretty.

What about a small tree. Maybe a Japanese maple, they do not grow that tall. The red in the tree would look good with your boxwoods.

I added the brown vinyl lattice around the bottom of the deck and used the area as storage. A Japanese boxwood around the deck might look nice.

Hostas and daylilies will come back every year

The lattice around the bottom is a great idea, you can store most weather safe tools under it. I would suggest some pavers in a path to the sandbox or back of garden. You don't show the rear of your garden but I assume there are things there. Hostas are wonderful in that they are perennials they also fill in on their own. So do iris , tulips and marigolds.

Some inspiration, boxwood would look great, a few small trees for privacy, love the hydrangeas with boxwood growing in front of them

inspiration

sorry...here are photos

You do realize any red-blooded American kid is going to play under the deck? If you have brown recluse spiders in your area, you might want to put lattice or another barrier around deck to keep the kid(s) out of there.

Flowering shrubs like hydrangea "Quick Fire" or "Pinky Winky", sambucas "Black Lace", and the golden sambucas any of the wigelea and the gold spiraea ...the mix of gold and burgundy leaves would look good even when they're not in bloom...no white stones! Use thick newspaper covered with shredded bark mulch, either the natural or black coloured....a great look and less maintenance than perennials.

I'd add balusters to the rails going down the steps. Also, that deck is a lot of brown... Maybe a few planter boxes? Or a large colorful umbrella? Maybe even a small pergola over the sliding glass door for some dimension. Additionally, maybe some arborvitae to the right of the deck to screen from the neighbors... Just ideas. You can do one step at a time over couple years.

So many options, but you don't mention privacy issues while sitting on deck.

This would be more of an issue with me than what to plant.

Going to add a Japanese Maple in corner. We enjoy our neighbor and don't want too much privacy. Sodding lawn tomorrow and possibly adding colorful umbrella this week. Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions.

Yeah, they are too close. I think that I counted at least 15 boxwoods, and you only needed about 7 or 8.