Grass/sod is going to LOOK much, much better than mulch. Also, given that it is adjacent to walks, mulch would have a tendency to scatter, here and there, on the walk. It would get tiresome to keep needing to tidy it.

Where the driveway canopy extends over the lawn, it's not going to be a good place to grow grass or much of anything. It would be better to pave that area solid (not segmented squares.)

Thanks for the feedback. I think you're right about the grass. The mulch thing was just an idea I had.

The carport will definitely make it difficult for grass to grow. Unfortunately, we'll need to leave it as is until we do some major changes to the front...

I'm in South Florida...

I would recommend getting rid of the concrete first. A lawn or many other plants will not do well in your climate surrounded by concrete.

Your front yard is a parking lot. It is not a yard or a garden. It is a parking lot. That needs some different design ideas.

Grass is the most logical choice for median plantings in parking lots because it will stand up to the most abuse. But even grass wears out where people regularly take short cuts and make paths across it. Between the carport cover, the pavers and stepping stones that were in the driveway cutouts before, the condition of the 'lawn' area as shown and two years of you living there, I'm not seeing much previous owner past or future success for you in trying to grow two patches of grass in a high traffic parking lot.

People and pets are going to go the shortest most direct route in, around and between the cars in your all ready small parking lot and there is nothing you can do to stop them. You have to design around that traffic pattern.

This is not a suggestion, more of a question for yardvaark, Perennial Peanut, Arachis glabrata, is currently the trendy plant down there for lawn replacement and groundcover. Would it work in this situation with stepping stones where needed? I don't know enough about it.

What I am really seeing is a small parking lot that needs to allow people and pets the most freedom of movement as possible, You need to cover the dirt. You got plenty concrete already and you probably can't grow grass.

Cover the dirt areas with at least 1" size rounded river rock mulch. Buy two matching very large, like concrete security barrier size pots, and place them towards the fence/road side of the parking lot. Buy four more, two each side, matching pots one or two sizes down to place in the rest of the river rock mulch. You now have six large pots to plant with some nice things that won't get trampled on. Use the pots to define and accentuate the actual used traffic patterns of the people through this space.

@Christopher CNC ... Perennial peanut would work well in this situation. It can be walked on with occasional light traffic. It's not problem to walk on it for the various maintenance chores one does around the yard. But it couldn't be walked on in the same place regularly or a bare dirt path would appear. It would be hard to maintain stepping stones in it, since the plant grows laterally. Instead, one would just use regular paved walks and keep out of the bed.

There are two Arachis that are sold under the banner of 'Ecoturf,' so we can be sure there's not much accuracy there. Both plants perform the groundcover job in slightly different ways. A glabrata is softer, lighter color -- slightly lettuce like. You could imagine grazing on it if you were starving. :-) A. pintoi, on the other hand, is a little larger, darker color, more robust and the leaves slightly plastic-like. You could not imagine ever eating any. It is also the tougher plant. A. glabrata blooms more and the flowers are butter colored. Pintoi has more of a seasonal bloom and flowers are school bus colored.

If there have been weeds around before, or they are nearby, it's pretty much a requirement that one uses Preen to help keep the weeds down. There'll still be hand weeding, but it will be manageable with Preen. This is if one is going to grow it as a groundcover bed. Some people let peanut mix in their lawn and it becomes a flowering lawn. In that case, the regular grass mowing is what keeps weeds suppressed.

I made my mom's whole "lawn" to be peanut so that's how I know it. At the beginning of doing it, I didn't know glabrata from pintoi and ended up getting them both. I liked the flowers of pintoi better. But then where I had it, it got too tall (I was not mowing it) and it freaked me out. So I quick got on craigslist and had someone come and take it all away. I planted the area with glabrata, but within a short time all the pintoi was back, took over and went to town. In the end, I was glad it did. Once it started getting occasional mowing, it became the sturdier, richer looking, more durable groundcover. I have some areas of glabrata that are thin and can't seem to get going. Next year, I'll "seed" pintoi into all the bald spots. I have other areas of glabrata that couldn't look more luscious. It's a brighter color ... like the Claritin shield has been peeled away, but without having to take the drug. The bottom line is I really like them both and don't care which one is is there. But if I had to choose, I am probably a pintoi boy. I think I will end up with more pintoi because it seems a little more aggressive and works out for the difficult areas. Now, they are mowed about every 6 weeks and consequently, stay low enough to make me happy.

Peanut is not a cold weather plant. While you could transplant a potted plant (if you could find one) it will not grow but just sit there. The soil has to be warm in order to get any action whatsoever out of them. When they are new, they'll need additional fertilizer in order to keep from yellowing (glabrata). As they establish, they seem to do fine without much, if any, extra. They'll be come solid in one season (at 2' o.c.) but it takes about 3 years before they don't need fertilizer. It's drought tolerance is such that it doesn't look pretty when it goes dry too long, but it stays alive once established, so you won't lose it except temporarily.

They are super easy to get started from roots. 1 square foot of existing plants could probably make 100 s.f. of bed, dense enough to cover in the first season.

It's easy to see why this plant is trendy. A. glabrata blooms so much -- every warm day until cool weather hits -- that it creates a happy place.

@christopher Ha, definitely a parking lot. Lots of houses in my area have covered up fronts similar to this. I agree that it definitely needs a better design, which is what we plan to do in the future. The dead spots were from when we had the house tented for termites. I went ahead and put sod this past weekend. Looks much better. fortunately it's just mostly my wife and I going to/from the cars, so we can easily avoid walking through the grass.

2nd photo

It looks good Brian. Big improvement. That can well be the perfect surface for your needs. I know about dead spots from tenting houses.

From the before pictures to now, the change of appearance is dramatic. You've got to love that! Hopefully, you'll be able to keep it well watered until the grass is safely growing again. Looks great.