How large is the area to be planted? Can you add photos taken closer in? This is a great overview, but doesn’t show much about the bed near the house. Take a couple of photos from closer in, about half way up the lawn.

How much do you own on either side of the house? For instance, is the strip to the left of the house and driveway yours or your neighbors? Where is the boundary to the right? Perhaps the new photos can include a marker on the property line.

Is there money in the budget to widen the walkway, either by totally replacing or by adding a course of brick or patio block on each side of the walkway?

Start a Houzz folder with some examples of what you like as far as style, the same way you did for other aspects of the home. There are lots of CA examples here in the Houzz landscape photos. Here are a couple of landscape designers based in the Bay Area whose work I really like, one on Houzz (Derviss Design) and one not (David Felix). If you are elsewhere in CA, you may want to look closer to home since it’s a big state with a wide range of growing conditions, even within a single zone.

https://www.houzz.com/pro/dervissdesign/derviss-design

https://www.flickr.com/photos/20217462@N02/albums/with/72157633201247042

If you’re just looking for suggestions I’m a huge fan of lavender, lions tail and Jerusalem sage. Jerusalem sage only blooms once a year for me, but the intense yellow flowers are very worth it. Lions lamb is orange and of course lavender is purple. They all do well for me in full triple digit sun. I would start off with one plant and get a feel for what you like and go from there. Also, I love the look of mass plantings, at least 3-5 together (that isn’t a mass planting but it is a good economical start). Good luck!

Suggest you check out the California Friendly website. This is devoted to enouraging waterwise CA landscapes that do not resemble deserts!! You can have a very lush looking garden using very xeric or low water need plants. Included are lists of plants that can be used as well as lots of photos of existing gardens that meet these criteria - great for developing inspiration!! Roger's Gardens in Corona del Mar used to have an annual contest for California friendly landscaping and many of the finalist gardens were drop-dead stunning!!

There is also a rebate program available to those who opt to remove water-hungry lawns and other water consuming plantings in favor of more waterwise options. That alone is worth checking out!

Parkinsonia 'Desert Museum' is a wonderful palo verde that is extremely floriferous and does not have thorns. I'd look at aloes, too, as most of them bloom in winter and some can get quite large and structural (some have yellow blooms, most are orange). Also check out Hesperaloe, especially newer cultivars like 'Desert Flamenco'. They bloom all summer.

This is a good resource: http://www.bewaterwise.com/garden.html

Your house is really cute!! Nothing more to add, I hired a pro to do mine since we won the football pool.

Thanks all! I really appreciate the suggestions. Our budget is relatively small for now, so we're planning to overhaul the landscape in sections, starting with foundation and porch-area first. Unfortunately our city stopped providing rebates for lawn removal, so that will be a project for the future. Excellent idea about mass plantings rather than a hodge-podge of random things. I guess my main hangup is keeping the house from looking like an overgrown side of a foothill, as I've seen some neighbors' lawn conversion projects that started out looking nice but now are scraggly and unkempt. I suppose that's all about upkeep though. I love this project as it does CA natives in a non-desert style. If anyone has any suggestions similar to this one, I'm all ears. Thanks :)

I noticed those designs incorporate a lot of lavender, Elijah’s blue fescue and succulents such as blue chalk sticks and agave attenuata.

Which sunset zone are you in and which city?

I like those non desert examples also. I’m not great at landscape design, but my only advice is to put together a master plan, even if you will only be doing it piecemeal.

Just to emphasize Yardvaark’s point about the walkway. Move it outward to create a generous enough bed to be ornamental, and place a wide landing at the base of the steps. Consider widening the walkway as well. I was hoping for closer photos so we could actually see the walk and bed . . . Regardless, if you plant before redoing the walk, expect the plantings to be damaged when you redo the walkway, so use something inexpensive

Yardvaark that's such a beautiful mock up! I love that the colorful plants near the porch draw your eye there and create a focal point. We do plan to redo the walkway, it's far too narrow currently, and the garage door definitely will be replaced soon. Fair point about the tree near the window. We thought it might provide a little privacy but I had a hard time envisioning how that might look. The yard is quite small, so I agree that a tree would be better off where you suggested it. These are such good ideas, I really appreciate it!

NHBabs, sorry for the delay, here's another photo of the space. I totally agree that the walkway needs widening. The concrete is in bad shape and it's so narrow that guests must walk single file to get to the door!

Nil13 we are in sunset zone 22 near the LA/OC border.

Also, just to clarify, we do own the parking strip to the left of the driveway. The border between our neighbor to the right is almost evenly split between the two houses (about 5 feet from our house). It's a pretty dense suburb :)

That photo helps, essiebird. The bed is good-sized , so I would just replace the walkway with a wider one without the bizarre zigzags and a landing at the base before you do final landscaping.

Because budget is an issue (when isn’t it?!), I strongly suggest that you invest in a consultation with a landscape architect. I did this years ago. I spent two hours with her, walking my yard, talking with her, asking her questions, taking notes, gathering ideas. I paid her a fee for her time and insight. And then, as time permitted, I implemented her suggestions. For hardscape solutions and for plant materials. Many designers will draw up a plan for a fee. One that you can implement in stages as time and money permit. The result will be something that you can have confidence will grow in your climate and enhance your biggest investment, your home. Don’t be “Penny wise, pound foolish.” The experts are worth it. Trust me! Good luck with your future projects!

There are various ways one could detail a walk, but I'd employ a single convex curve (relative to the house) as the main feature. In addition to pulling the walk farther from the garage, I'd make sure there are expanded areas at each end ... especially at the steps. Minimum width should be 4'.