Hello!

I'm trying to design my backyard garden to replace turfgrass. I have some pre-existing structures, trees and I believe that the garden has a skeleton of a formal garden. I'm interested in building on the top of what is already present.

Most of my yard is in full sun. There are trees on surrounding properties but this space gets almost a full day of sun. My SS zone is 16, in Northern Cali, (SF Bay Area).

What I am looking for are suggestions of plants. I have contemplated some, and I am looking for some others. I am leaning towards making this a modern garden with grasses, groundcovers etc. I'm not looking for plants with flowers, unless they are self-cleaning :-), and my attempt is to create this garden with primarily foliage plants with varying shapes/colors/visual textures with foliage. (Another constraint is that I do not want to use succulents).

I am looking for suggestions for:

1. Sculptural, statement making plant/shrub that would thrive in full sun. I'm thinking something with a vase or a round shape like round boxwood, Blackcurrent Sage, etc. which will be ~2-3 ft tall. There will be a total 4 of these around a central fountain+paved square area. (#6 in the drawing below).

2. a groundcover with an even appearance (i.e not wavy) -- that would not need mowing (#5 in the drawing below. This pretty much goes all over the area except for the plants).

3. short shrubs that can be planted in a row along the border. These can be fountain grasses, non-grassy full-looking shrubs, etc. (#3,9,10,11).

TIA!!!

(Here's the plan):

#1 is paved area, with fountain in the center.