Get an estimate for removing the eucalyptus and grinding the stump. It will be worth it. They are difficult to garden under.

My suggestion is to make your path larger and more useable. The shape that it is in your plan would lead to many people cutting the corner if they're coming up from the street or the bottom of the driveway. You may make the "opening" of the path larger or bell-shaped to accomplish this.

I'd feel a little bad killing such a big/old tree, but it is really really ugly. Would you replace it with a smaller tree (like a smoke tree maybe) or just leave it blank?

Laurell, do you mean the narrow concrete path alongside the house by the much-wider-than-shown driveway? I was thinking the paths inside the yard would be mostly so I could access things without stepping on plants

Cute house! ( . . . but I can understand why you think the yard needs work.)

I don't know anything about CA gardening, but have one question about the Eucalyptus: Does it provide important shade for the house? If so, is the garden worth the trade-off for the increased heat and light the house will get? I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but just to put that thought into the overall equation in making your decision.

If you haven't done much gardening before, be sure to get soil tests done before you start planning actual plants so that you know what you have to work with and what you may need to do to improve your soil.

I think it should be ok to get rid of the tree -- given the sun direction, it would only shade the house/yard in late afternoon, and the very large acacia trees next door are already doing a good job of that. The only issue might be that it's big enough that the city won't let me get rid of it (without some paperwork and $$).

What do you guys think about the clumps of shrubs, as defined by the new stepping path? I've kind of separated it out into 3 groups.

I have some experience with cities "letting" trees be removed, and you just have to remember who owns the property. Trees create work and constrain how you can use the property, and in our laws at least, and probably more so in yours, you have a right to pleasurable use of property according to how you define that. I'm waiting to see some of those city bylaws subjected to court challenge, actually.

If you're surrounded by big trees, the sooner you get started on the succession generation the better. Otherwise they will all have to come down at once - and big trees eventually do have to, around structures - and you will be in a moonscape. So yes, plant a replacement tree, and do so wherever you want screening and shade in the longer term.

As for structure, start with function. Where do you need to go in the yard, where do visitors and delivery people need to go, and what do they need to see to get there?

KarinL