When space opened up in the back yard for the strawberries, I moved them and planted succulents in the front bed (and in a few planters). I was told deer didn’t like sedum and would prefer to snack on other things. Well, apparently the deer didn’t get the memo because I came out today to find this:

For reference, this what that planter looked like after it was freshly repotted:

The funny part is that they skipped by a bunch of more tender perennials, a planter full of basil, and all sorts of other things to settle on eating this pile of stonecrop. I don’t mind too much, but I may move some of these planters to the back so that they don’t get knocked over and broken by the deer.

On the report for the house, it said the deck supports were rotten so we knew the deck would eventually have to come out. I hired a local contractor to come rip out the deck, and I’m very glad I did because it was really rotten underneath. I was then left with a pile of rotten deck:

And a giant sink hole that was once a deck:

I obviously now have several problems to address. First off, there’s obviously a lot of dirt that needs to be added to this area. Those poor tree roots are hanging out of the ground for lack of organic material! Secondly, what am I going to do with this area? I’d rather not have another deck here, and I definitely don’t want a plain concrete patio. So my idea is to build a sort of “country garden patio” with a mix of stone, urbanite and brick, spaced a bit apart, with sedum and moss growing between the rocks and some built up planters on the sides. Sort of like this in terms of feel, and without the steps: