Rosanne Hirsch

In this area the goal is to cover up the rock so you don't see it at all. You already have fountain grass growing here, so the easiest look is more ornamental grass filling in the whole space. Here are good options that won't spread where you don't want them:

Bamboo Muhly

Native to the Sonoran Desert. Airy, bright green, bamboo-like stems 3 to 4 feet tall and wide. Soft and graceful, and it stays green most of the year. Plant 3 to 4 feet apart.

Muhly Grass

Pink muhly. Fine textured clumps 3 feet tall with a pink-purple cloud of flowers in fall. Plant 3 feet apart for a solid sweep.

Deer Grass

Native, big fountain-shaped clumps 3 to 4 feet tall and wide. Very tough and fills a lot of space with just a few plants.

If you'd rather not go all grass, a spreading ground cover will also hide the rock:

Trailing Indigo Bush

Low, spreading native, 1 foot tall and up to 6 feet wide, purple flowers in spring.

Trailing Rosemary

Spreads and spills over rock, blue flowers in winter and spring.

Lantana

Mounding color all warm season, 2 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide.

Myoporum

Fast, flat, bright green ground cover with small white flowers. Covers fast.

Mixing two or three grasses with a ground cover in front looks great. Pick your favorites.

Right here around the oleander, a ground cover would finish it off nicely. There aren't many ground covers that will work here because of the sun orientation. This is a north-facing wall and it gets a decent amount of shade, so yellow dot is the best option.

Yellow Dot

Fast spreading ground cover with bright yellow daisy flowers most of the year. Stays 6 to 12 inches tall and spreads several feet. Plant 3 feet apart and it will fill in quickly. Keep it trimmed back from the turf edge.

These pots are off the north-facing patio, so they get mostly shade and bright indirect light. Here are plants that will do much better in pots here:

Foxtail Fern

Soft, bright green plumes. One of the best pot plants for shade here. Very easy.

Asparagus Fern

Airy, cascading texture that spills over the edge of the pot. Takes shade and fills in fast.

Snake Plant

Upright, architectural leaves. Does great in shade, takes very little water. Pull it against the house on frost nights.

Firecracker Plant

Arching stems covered in red tubular flowers. Spills nicely over a pot edge and draws hummingbirds.

Cape Plumbago

Sky blue flowers most of the year. Mounds over the side of a large pot.

Use a good potting mix (not garden soil), make sure each pot has a drainage hole, and top the soil with a little compost a couple times a year. Pots dry out faster than the ground, so check them twice a week in summer.

This agave grows by pups, the small offsets that pop up around the main plant. You can take out any of them at any time and transplant them. You can even take out the mother plant and you won't hurt the others. Since you don't like when they get too big, once one starts getting too large, it's as simple as cutting it out.

How to remove and transplant pups

1. Protect yourself. Wear thick gloves and long sleeves. Agave sap can irritate skin.
2. Dig around the pup with a shovel or flat spade and find the runner connecting it to the mother plant. Cut through it.
3. Lift it out with whatever roots come with it. Even a pup with almost no roots will usually take.
4. Let it dry in the shade for a few days so the cut end calluses over.
5. Plant it at the same depth it was growing, in well-drained soil. Water it in once, then wait a week before watering again so the roots can form.

To remove a big one, dig around the base, cut the roots, and lever it out with a long bar or shovel. The pups around it will keep growing and take its place. Extra pups are great to fill in the west wall bed or to give away.

This mock orange had quite a bit of dieback, but it's pushing new growth, which is a great sign. Now is a great time to get in and cut all the dead stuff out.

1. Cut back the dead. Scratch the bark with your fingernail. Green underneath is alive. Cut dead branches back to where you find green.
2. Add compost. Spread good quality compost around the base out to the edge of the plant.
3. Give it a deep soak. Put your hose on a slow drip at the base for 24 to 48 hours and let it soak in deep. Move the hose around the plant every several hours.

I think it will come back. After that, keep it on a regular deep watering schedule and feed it monthly (see the feeding section).

Your grass is slowly declining and you're not sure why. It could be a soil issue, but soil issues can be fixed by adding quality compost and organic feeding. Here's what I'd do:

1. Level it out. Right now it's very uneven, and water runs off the high spots and pools in the low ones. Fill the low spots with a mix of sand and compost, a half inch at a time, and rake it in so the grass can grow through.
2. Aerate it. Core aeration pulls plugs of soil and lets water, air and compost get down to the roots. You can rent a core aerator or hire it out.
3. Top dress with compost. Right after aerating, spread a thin layer (about 1/4 inch) of compost over the whole lawn and rake it into the holes.
4. Push it in spring. Once it greens up in spring, feed it monthly with a good organic fertilizer. The Catalyst products in the feeding section work great on grass and really green it up.

• Water deep and less often so roots go down: soak about 6 inches deep each time. In summer that's usually 3 times a week, early morning.
• Mow at 1 to 1.5 inches for Bermuda and never take more than a third of the blade at once.

I think it will come back.

Asparagus fern is very hardy and hard to kill, but this one has a lot of old growth, leaves, and mulch built up in it, plus some dead portions. Here's how to bring it back:

1. Cut out all the dead. Now is a great time of year to do it. Cut dead stems right down to the ground. Wear gloves; some asparagus ferns have small thorns.
2. Blow it out. Use a leaf blower to clear all the old leaves, old growth and dead material out of the middle. That really opens it up and gets airflow moving through it.
3. Soak and feed. Once it's hacked back, put the hose on a slow drip and give it a long, deep soak, then add compost around the base.

It'll push fresh green growth quickly. If you want it to look tidier long term, do a cleanup like this once a year in fall.

This is the south-facing wall at the front of the house. Cape plumbago would work great here. Here it is with some other options that fit the same tropical feel as the rest of the front:

Cape Plumbago

Sky blue flowers most of the year, mounding to 3 to 4 feet. My first pick for this wall.

Firecracker Plant

Arching stems with red tubular flowers, 3 to 4 feet. Hummingbird magnet.

Pink Ruellia

Pink flowers spring through fall, upright to 3 feet. Takes the heat well.

Autumn Sage

Red, pink or white flowers spring and fall, 2 to 3 feet.

Pick a couple and repeat them along the wall.