I happen to love deck and the more the better so I would probably do a deck the same level as the top landing and as for size use graph paper to draw a space large enogh to have all the stuff you want then use cardboard to do the pieces you want in the same scale as the drawing to see if it all fits. A to scale drawing is a must even for us to help you. I have 2200 sq ft of deck all around my house and where we have plants we did pea gravel this year and do I love it hardly any weeds the plants are doing great and I could actually enjoy my summer .If you post that to scale plan here you will get more help. Also some pics of the whole space too.Also some idea of budget

Thank you so very much for your response. I will get graph paper and start to work on your suggestion. I had no idea where to start so this is a great help. I will then add more photos of the space as you also suggested. Have a great weekend.

I am sending the graph to scale drawing I prepared along with additional pictures. I hope this will help for ideas of how and where to best extend the deck. If you think the deck can be extended out the back of the house, towards the trees and neighbors fence, we will be removing and replacing the trees and would appreciate some privacy and landscaping ideas for that area and around the deck. If the deck can also be extended to the end of the patio, what happens to the existing shower? Yikes, so much confusion for us. In addition, I think my original message may have too many wants for our small-ish space but with so many mosquitoes, we would really like to screen in a section of the deck. I will have to buy furniture that would work on the space the deck will allow, as I now only have a 5 foot dining table.
Our budget is $20,000.
Thank you in advance for any ideas, advice, suggestions you can offer, as it is greatly needed.

If the area where the creeping jenny is growing is shady, you can use ajuga as a groundover. That's what I grow under my trees and it is not as aggressive. But I have crappy sandy soil so maybe that's what keeps it in line . . . a lot of people swear by "green and gold" Chrysogonum virginianum or wild ginger. I haven't ever had much problems with my groundcovers getting too aggressive, in fact quite the opposite. I really enjoyed sweet woodruff with its white flowers back at my old yard. I lived in a row house in the middle of the city so I wasn't worried about it invading a natural area. Lily of the valley is nice for the smell ins spring and pairs nicely with sweet woodruff. Many folks also add some of the heucheras for their colorful foliage. For whatever reason, I don't have luck getting them to thrive.

For sunny spots around the deck, you can't beat the landscape roses. I have those and also some of the Asiatic lillies. Easy to grow and fun color bursts. I've also used some of the low growing dwarf shrubs in other spots, like "wine and roses" weigela and "magic carpet" spirea. Both of those have nice foliage when not in bloom. Some folks like the red twig dogwoods for around the house but I am bored with them . . . I have some nice other dogwoods and viburnum which get larger, away from the deck. I know a lot of folks plant some of the smaller snowball bushes but I am lost when it comes to them. Also I have planted dwarf fothergilla, I think the variety is "Mt. Airy." I also grew "Miss Kim" dwarf lilac at my last house. Boring but well behaved and nice smell and flowers in late spring. Clethera does the same thing in late summer. Looks ubiquitous and boring most of the time, but nice fragrant floral display once a year. I intersperse those with dwarf evergreens for year round interest, such as the low growing mugo pines and something maybe like gold mound arborvitae or a ground covering juniper or spruce. All but the arborvitae need sun though . . . I love some of the yews but deer make them impossible for me to grow . . .

Thank you very much for all the plant and groundcover information, as well as your time to create this list. It is a wealth of information and greatly appreciated. It certainly will keep us busy when we get to that stage of this project.

Hi Again,
I have a contractor coming over today to give me a price to extend our deck. My problem is I don’t know what to tell him. Can anyone, with your professional knowledge and experience, give me an idea as to just what area you think it would look best to extend and enlarge this deck.
I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you very much.

I forgot to put the scale on the graph. Each square is approximately 2.5 ft. Thanks

I can't help much with the size of the deck extension, but one other thing I noticed with your plantings is they are crowded up against fences and decks. You want to keep at least 3 feet away from any hardscaping because the plants will hold moisture up against it and cause premature aging, plus it just gets difficult to keep them nicely shaped. Find out what the mature size of the plant will be, and plant it accordingly so that you give it space to expand. At first, this makes your plantings looks sparse, but you can fill in with annuals. It takes a tree or shrub at least three years to settle in. Not sure about perennials, it varies. At least one season I think, but some of the more aggressive ones take over quite rapidly. That is both a boon and a bane . . . I didn't mention any annual groundcovers, but you can also fill in with those while you wait for the perennial ones to take hold.

One other thing, when selecting trees and shrubs, make sure you are getting smaller cultivars that will have a mature size in proportion with the size of your yard. Many popular shrubs come in both large and small sizes, but the plants have different cultivar names. For example, the fothergilla shrub I mentioned has the scientific name of "Fothergilla" which is the Latin name of the genus. There are two major species, (the second part of the name) Fothergilla major and Fotherfilla gardenii. "Major" is the larger and "gardenii" is the smaller. There is also a hybrid, which will have an "x" in the name, Fothergilla x intermedia. As you can probably tell this time, by the name, it has an "intermediate" size between the two species. The "x" indicates it being a hybrid. Single quote marks indicate a "cultivar" which is a bred plant that has certain characteristics. For example, Fothergilla gardenii 'Blue Mist.' (A cultivar with bluish tinged foliage but you can't always tell what the cultivar means by the name). Luckily, you can google it!!!

https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/fothergilla/

An invaluable source of information I use, made for folks just like you, is the Missouri Botanical Gardens "Plantfinder" database. You can search by both Latin and common names, and you will get a plant description page that is very helpful when making selection decisions.

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=261055&isprofile=1&gen=Fothergilla

Make sure when you are buying plants that they are properly labeled with the scientific name and the cultivar and the mature size, unless you want to take a risk and unless you are not adverse to tearing stuff out from time to time. I know it is increasingly difficult to find plants with good labeling, but it pays off in the long run to buy from a reputable nursery for the most part, and find someone with this type of plant knowledge to help you select stuff, or at least works in a place where they can look up that kind of information.

I personally would hire a landscape architect to draw up an integrated plan that includes deck, any other hardscaping and plantings.

I have no expertise in architecture, but the other advice I would give you is: shop around, ask for references, look at portfolios and look for "inspiration pictures" to show potential contractors. Pictures help communicate with people who are more visual and hands on than verbal. You can google a lot of ideas and get pretty good examples of photos but also search Houzz and maybe check out some books at the library . . . last bit of advice, don't rush, there's a saying, "prior preparation prevents poor performance."

Thank you both for your recent comments. I am taking your advise and searching for a firm that can incorporate structural and landscape designs, no luck so far in my area. Also have been doing a lot of research on designs pertaining to all of this. Met with a contractor yesterday and a lot more to think about. Thanks again for you comments snd time.

Where is north on your drawing?

At my previous house before the one I am in now, I had a huge deck and found I didn't use it much. It was hot and needed a lot of maintenance and was windy and in my neighborhood with tiny yards, offered little privacy. We have a porch and a deck now, the deck was built by the previous owner of our house who built it. His wife was handicapped and he built the deck so she would have a sunny place to sit and enjoy the sun, easily accessible with her wheelchair. We don't use it that often, the times that are "just right" sunny out there are few, our yard has a lot of mosquitoes. We screened in the porch so use that much more now. We pretty much only use the deck for grilling and messy projects.

I am of the opinion that if you don't have anything to look out over, a deck is not all that great. Particularly with the various maintenance and weather issues. It blocks the view and gives you the feeling of being in jail. Well maybe that is just me. The plus of a deck is if you have quite a drop between your back door and the ground, you can walk out onto it without doing stairs. That's the plus for us of keeping the deck, we can grill on it and don't have to worry about carrying food up and down the stairs, I am very clumsly lol!

Also, you might want to think about a screened in porch instead of a deck. (If you're already committed, forget that, scroll on down, I know I hate it when folks suggest some off the wall thing that I didn't ask about but just in case . . . . ) I don't know what your mosquito situation is, but ours makes our backyard unusable for long periods of time. We love our screened in porch so much we are mulling over how to make it a year round thing! I know quite a few people who have moved in that direction due to the pandemic. A screened in porch does a lot to alleviate that cooped up feeling, even in winter.

Another lesson I learned when landscaping a deck is, unless you are going to be looking at the deck from a distance, there is really no sense in doing a lot of landscaping around it. When on the deck you won't see it, and if you can see it, it will then impede your view and give the deck a hemmed in feeling. Instead, landscaping should be designed to be viewed from the deck. I tore out all the landscaping directly around our deck. It was planted way too close to the deck, looked horrid and was unhealthy due to constant improper pruning in a vain effort to keep it in line, and it harbored insects and gave cover to varmints that caused trouble around the foundation, etc.

Now, instead, I am designing a shade viewing garden around a beautiful oak tree that sits across from the deck. I've already planted some flowering shrubs around the tree which are lovely in the spring to view from the house windows and deck. When the ones right up against the deck bloomed, you could never see them. The only exception might be a dwarf lilac like Miss Kim. She's nothing special to look at anyway, but smells great when in bloom. Same with mock orange, but look for a dwarf one on that, the full size ones get huge. I also see they have bred smaller fragrant viburnums. And fothergilla smells pretty good too, along with clethera. Again look for smaller versions, see my previous post about species cultivars.

I would give some thought to leaving what you have as is and then connecting to a new deck that would go where the herb garden is and further back into the rear yard and wrap around that side of the house.

I marked North on a revised graph which also includes a revision to show one thought we had for placement of the deck.
I also just saw additional posts. Thank you very much for all these great comments which gives us a lot more to consider. I’m sure we will have many revised drafts after all these helpful hints.
Thank you so much and also for your time.

Is it option to expand the ground level - to far edge of stone border - won't steps be needed anyway?

[I think fragrant bush at each side of current one is good.]

Forgot to mark on the latest graph, where the herb garden was were considering screening in the deck there.