Get rid of the grass and leave the rest alone until you’ve been through a life cycle with them to be able to actually judge what exists

A picture taken from the street showing the entire front would help. Privacy where? Where the retaining wall is? Generally, I think it’s well worth the money to have a landscape design done. You can always accomplish it in stages if money is an issue. Your climate is very mild, a very wide variety of plants, trees & shrubs will easily grow there. You can easily have color year around. Those are Sago palms btw, related to pine trees actually if I’m not mistaken.

Yes, sagos are cycads. They are slow growing and valuable plants. If you have pets, be aware that they are extremely poisonous if injested.

The large ficus tree you have above your retaining wall is a terrible choice. The roots will destroy that retaining wall.

If you want a privacy hedge, waxleaf privets are easy to grow and their roots don't get out of hand like ficus.

Sago Palms are excellent structural plants. Yours look like they have outgrown their allotted space, up against the window and between the driveway and front walk. They are uncomfortable to get around closely. It would be a heavy physical chore, but Sago Palms transplant well. Consider moving them where the roses are as a screen between you and the neighbor and let them grow. Timing on that would be right before winter rains start.

You do not want to create privacy for the front windows by planting shrubs in that front planter box. That is too close to the house and blocks your view out. Create privacy for the front windows by identifying what sight lines you want to screen. Plant at the far end of that line. Think more of making a private courtyard effect.

Plant choices in SoCal are immense. I suggest going to some good quality independent local nurseries with no intention to buy at first Just go look and start taking names of plants you like and want to know more about.

Have you just moved in? Are you in the cooler area near the beach or hotter inland?

It sounds as if you have not been through a full year with the current landscape. In LA, the plants go through flushes of blooms at different times of the year. An all-blooming, all the time garden takes coordination of several plant types.

If you want something that blooms most of the time in your area, head over to your local nursery and ask about your microclimate. Azaleas (such as Alaska) and bird of paradise are good candidates. The bird of paradise plants are a "forever" choice because they get absolutely massive.

Your roses will reward you well if they are properly pruned, well-watered, and cared for. Between now and mid January, you can prune off the suckers, add lavish amounts of compost, and a cup of Gro Power Plus per plant after every 6-week bloom cycle. You need one drip irrigation nozzle per plant for efficient watering.

I suggest you research plants native to the area. Cooperative extension can help or there must be native plant nurseries around.. Also consider xeriscaping. Aren't there water restrictions in effect?

Although its trunk has a resemblance to a ficus the tree in the photos appears to be Cupaniopsis anacardioides or carrotwood tree. It was a pretty common landscaping tree in SoCal a few decades ago but has fallen out of favor. If yours is a female expect it to produce thousands of seed pods every year. I've never heard of them doing much damage to walls and foundations but you can research it for more information.

The Carrotwood trees are lifting the sidewalks in my neighborhood. And they are very messy several times a year. I hate them.

Thanks everybody for taking your time and providing advice. I have been on the property for a couple of years and my budget was focussed on fixing a lot of issues inside the house and this year I am focussing on my front and backyard. And thank you @celerygirl for the picture. @sophie I did roundup and put in some seeds early this year (and manually removed weeds which kept on growing), so it will be very painful to get rid of the grass. I was concerned about the tree (carrotwood ?) , it was planted by the previous owner and dont know whether to just leave it there or if possible retransplant it. Based on other comments I will take the perspectives given to me and take it to the local nursery for recommendations. Also @apple_pie_order do you recommend keeping the roses in the retaining wall, I am almost tempted to do the low shrub recommendation from @celerygirl and my wife prefers the roses to be there, how do I make sure it looks aesthetically good throughout the year?

If you intend to have roses on the retaining wall border I would suggest that you remove / transplant them & replace with either “Simplicity “ roses or “Iceberg” roses . Both are much more attractive & appropriate for that location. Check out Jackson & Perkins online for information re Simplicity roses. Also, both rose varieties I mentioned bloom almost non-stop & are “hedgelike”. All nurseries carry both in So Cal. January would be an excellent time to do this.

Your roses have their "naked legs" on display, especially in their elevated position. If you choose to keep some or all of the roses, after following the advice from apple-pie-order above, add some low growing plants that might spill over the edge of the retaining wall and enhance the overall look of the roses in the bed: catmint, petite varieties of lavender, trailing thyme, purple or white alyssum, many kinds of salvia, lamb's ears, blue fescue, etc. These softer plants will give a more luxuriant appearance to your roses. If possible, water each plant with its own drip emitter -- by far the most efficient use of water -- and roses definitely need regular water.

As kiminpl suggests, plant some trailing short things in front of the roses. You'll need to double the amount of water that the roses need to take care of the new plants. Trailing ivy geraniums in white will bloom most of the year.

For plant suggestions, I'd go over to the California gardening forum as I think you would have suggestions from gardeners who are local to where you are. I would agree that a photo showing the entire area would help us to give you useful design feedback.

Without seeing the rest of your yard, I would suggest moving the sagos to a rear corner and clustering them, as they tend to look best planted in groups rather than as individuals.

For year-round interest, you'll have to rely on structure, texture and foliage color as opposed to relying on flowers, such as you would get from roses and such.

Furcraea variegata is a beautiful statement plant, and if you're in Southern California, consider some of the "prettier" agaves like agave attenuata, agave blue flame, agave desmettiana variegata, agave guiengola or agave ellemeetiana instead of the typical, spiny agave americana. Echeverias do extremely well here. Echeveria cante is very popular right now and will look great year round the closer you are to the coast. If you're inland, they suffer in summertime with direct sun. If you're close to the coast, you may be able to grow alcantarea imperialis or other bromeliads like aechmea blanchettiana. Aloes like aloe vaombe, aloe sabaea, aloe striata and aloe vanbalenni provide structure and interest year round.