I agree with several of the previous comments made, there is too much emphasis on the driveway and the garage doors, opposed to the entry of your home. Painting the garage doors a more neutral color that compliments the color pallet of your home would play them down and possibly doing an acid stain to the concrete drive as well. Which would be less costly than replacing the driveway surface, unless it is in your budget. A new walkway, with a new/better material and shape would help. Maybe a brick that has some color to visually draw attention to the entry (a deep brownish/orange brick tone, pick up samples and bring them home). It depends upon the tones you select for the garage doors and drive, continuity is very important in creating a pleasing design theme for your home/yard. Then the landscaping along the foundation, ornamental trees in the lawn will create scale, depth and interest. It is important that you find a competent landscape designer or architect that understands plant colors, textures,complimentary combinations, growth habits, etc., so it matures properly (not get over grown and disproportion). Check out their work and finished product (minimum 5 years in the ground). Bulbs, lighting, etc. will also had great interests and value during your season and evenings. Do not wing it, get a plan that makes sense on paper. Again, make sure the designer is qualified and understands your needs, goals and budget.

I am a farmer and my husband and I regularly uses all manner of chemicals on our paddocks as do most non organic farmers so that we can get the most out of the crops. I fully understand your concerns but it is unfortunately, the nature of the beast that people want hay and crops without weeds. My husband has done a chemical users course and has been trained in the correct use of the chemicals he both uses and doesn't use and I believe is very well informed. Have either of you done a course??...just read internet information? If you were a broadacre farmer, you might as well sell up as not use chemicals unfortunately!! I haven't told anyone that they must use glyphosate, my response came from questions asked.

Aran, You've chosen a very northeastern-looking house in what seems to be a stucco neighborhood, and it does indeed call out for a lush and colorful landscape that runs against your climate and local watering restrictions. You likely will have to give up your favorite flowers, but don't worry, xeriscape offers many beauties that can become your new favorites. Believe me, I survived a move from Maine to Arizona! There is, in fact, no reason you can't do a lush British-style perennial border with xeriscape plants, unorthodox as that is. It won't be the nonstop riot of color you think of, but you can get intermittent splashes of color most of the year. I'd start with a couple of trees in front, as almost all desert plants prefer dappled shade (counterintuitive, but true), and will thrive underneath them. Then search the deserts of the world for a vast array of options. Many prairie plants will also survive your conditions, and Mediterranean plants too. If you happen not to like cacti, there are hundreds and hundreds of other choices. In back, I'd recommend a quartet of desert-adapted trees that will form a natural pergola, around a square or round or octagonal paved area. If you want a darker shade on the patio, the new favorite is mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus) from the hottest and driest part of the Mediterranean. They are slow growing, so spend the money on the biggest specimens you can afford. Work outward from there with smaller plants and shrubs to soak up the glare, and go for taller ones again at the perimeter. Mix bushy plants in with sculptural form plants, alternate silvery with darker plants. A couple of boulders can ease the flat monotony. Beware of fountains as water guzzlers. Find something you can tolerate with a very small trickle and a very deep tank (so it won't grow to annoy you, water loss through splashing will be minimal, and the tank won't go dry and burn out the motor). Those fountains with water flowing down the outside of an urn are gorgeous but have appallingly high evaporative water loss. Plant xeriscape in the autumn. The long cooler season will give their roots a chance to get established before summer returns. (except for cacti and palms, which prefer to go into warm soil). Pots (always large pots in a climate like yours, as small ones dry out too fast for you to keep up with watering), can be used with bagged palm-and-cactus soil in terra cotta pots for all desert and Mediterranean plants. Never place glazed pots in the sun, as they will get hot enough to burn your hands and kill the plants. If you must, line them with bubble wrap first. You can use richer soil, glazed pots, and hand watering for a few "must have" high-water plants, and keep these in the shade of a porch or against the north side of the house. For ease in manipulation of irrigation, I've done my front garden entirely with mediterranean plants (very loosely defined as everything from cold arid mountains of Afghanistan to Morocco and Spain to the Canary Islands, plus a few that get "honorary citizenship" for centuries of cultivation in the Mediterranean countries), and I put all my desert plants in the back garden. Australia and south western Africa have some great desert plants to contribute to the selection. Brazil contributes the unexpectedly drought-tolerant bougainvillea and lantana. Don't forget to sow and rake in desert wildflowers in the autumn. Water twice a week until two or three inches high, then soak once a week or every ten days. Okay, that is all too much info, but gives you ideas to think about. Here are some pictures from my garden in the scorching Sonoran desert. First the rock garden, then some spring wildflowers (native s.w. bluebells, African toad flax), then a corner of my small Mediterranean garden (this is also where I grow all my culinary herbs), and lastly my porch with a half-dozen or so inappropriate tropical plants, my own "must have" water guzzlers. PS: I lost about 30% of my original plants through my own ignorance; your landscape will take time and patience. Good luck!

These pics come at a time when we all need to be cheered up!...here at our house it is cold...gray...even snowing!...never mind the never ending falling leaves that need to be raked!