Flower Bed Redo: Part One

In the front our house we have two flowers beds, one now with no border (we removed the icky circa 1972 cement border). The other flower bed had a lopsided brick border. At first we were going to take the brick down, and re-brick with fresh mortar.

Mr. CLH liked the flower bed without the brick, he thought it aged our little rancher. It took him a few minutes to convince me, but I'm glad he did. The old brick on the house looks nice and gives our home character however the brick flower bed did date the home.

Enter Three Questions:

1. What to do with this great old brick? It's not enough to create a small patio in the backyard

2. Should we leave no border around the flower bed? If so what about drainage?

3. If we put in a new border, what kind?