Thank you! I would rather do small shrubs and plants also.

I have used wooly thyme in a similar circumstance as a groundcover. My only real concern would be if you would be likely to be dealing with dog urine from dog walkers. I am not sure that it would be tolerant of that. You would have to hand weed the thyme, but it looks like a relatively small patch. You probably want edging between any remaining grass and the thyme lawn.

I have problems with more than dog urine, the solid stuff too from the jerks that do not care!

me too! I don't know why the dogs gravitate to my yard. lol

Your problem and solution (eliminate the lawn) is one I read about often on the landscaping forum. We had a similar debate at our house: my dh loves the look of grass whereas I prefer less of it. He's willing to take care of the lawn and so I stick to the gardens.

You might want to just start with the wooly thyme planting this spring and see how that goes for a few seasons. If weeding issues or dog annoyances are too much, you could easily develop a plan like jersey girl's or even resort back to grass.

Right now, the grass looks like an afterthought - what was left over after the shrubs were planted. Smallish grass areas look much better if their shape is predetermined and the shrubs are the ones put in the leftover space.

However, if you have dog issues, grass is often the best material. You could try a small fence, and see if that helps. It looks like a small enough area that it shouldn't be terribly expensive. IME, dogs love groundcover more than grass, for reasons I'm not dog enough to begin to understand.

I'm with mad_gallica on this one-- My two dogs both lie in my thyme plants, squashing them to death each year I plant new ones. Something about the coolness of the plant, the softness of its leaves, or the scent attract them to lie down in it. I'm not dog enough to understand!

There are some creeping sedums that will stay low and provide a drought-tolerant option for the area. Why not incorporate thyme just to see how it performs? If you're up for some more maintenance, and don't have any rose or apples in the area, you could plant some creeping juniper. They're relatively drought-tolerant once established and can tolerate harder pruning if they approach the side walk.