IMHO (and totally amateur), I love central_cali369's plan. If your family "instinctively" travels on the paths you've set, don't try to force something else. And forget the individual flagstone idea, it's a bad one especially if you're carrying things in and out of the house. Such a flagstone path is stylistically pleasing in the garden, but lousy as a main pedestrian access. I absolutely understand the inability to redo the entire driveway - I don't know of any middle-class folks who can afford it, especially in these times! Your selection of plants is very water-thrifty: I have quite a few of them myself but in a cottage-garden setting (I'm coastal hills). Phormiums vary greatly in size and growth rate. 'Sundowner', for instance, is a modest grower even in rich compost, compared to some of my others. Normally I pay a lot of attention to the three-tier effect in landscaping, but with palms and a small front yard, there isn't much you can do except balance top and bottom layers. Which you've done, in a fun and lively way. I just hope your HOA feels the same, but YMMV. The one thing I definitely don't like is smashing what looks like a tree fern and Tibouchina urvilleana into that small corner by your front porch. T. urvilleana is one of those plants that branches outwards and will look a lot better by itself, with something modest at its feet, like evergreen daylilies, or the ubiquitous agapanthus.

This might sound a bit strange, but have you ever considered simply adding dirt to your mixture? I can't think of a way to get a more realistic "earth tone." If this forum defines hyertufa as containing moss or other organic materials, then I haven't made hypertufa with dirt, but I HAVE used dirt, cement, and sand to fashion an extremely durable slab of "dirtcrete." It's been outside now for about two years and shows no signs of breakdown. I don't know why dirt couldn't also be used in a hypertufa recipe.

OPTIONS: 1. a natural soft "meadow" of drought-tolerant grasses and grasslike plants -- no mowing: Autumn moor grass (Sesleria autumnalis) Berkeley sedge (Carex tumulicola) European meadow sedge (Carex remota) Meadow moor grass (Sesleria heuffleriana)  and the below 2. a semi-natural meadow of drought tolerant grasslike plants -- can be mowed and walked on: California meadow sedge (Carex pansa) Catlin sedge (Carex texensis) Valley meadow sedge (Carex praegracilis) 3. green, low groundcover for the "expanse of green"; many choices  including walk-on: Acaena ÂBlue Haze BLUE HAZE BIDI-BIDI Arenaria balearica CORSICAN SANDWORT Carex praegracilis (C. pansa) CALIFORNIA MEADOW SEDGE Carex subfusca RUSTY SEDGE Chamaemelum nobile CHAMOMILE Dymondia margaritacea DYMONDIA Erodium reichardii CRANESBILL Herniaria glabra GREEN CARPET Sagina subulata SCOTCH "MOSS", IRISH "MOSS" Thymus x citriodorus LEMON THYME Thymus herba-barona CARAWAY-SCENTED THYME Thymus polytrichus ÂPink Chintz WILD THYME Thymus serpyllum CREEPING THYMES 4. blooming groundcover for interest; many choices (not necessarily "walk on") 5. seeded clover, birdÂs-foot trefoil (cheap, quick, easy) 6. interesting plants and plantings such as: Succulents Rock garden plantings "Mediterranean chapparal" 7. Additional or extended hardscaping  patio, courtyard 8. synthetic lawn. Yes -- TodayÂs new versions are not too bad Joe

Most landlords know you care but these are temporary homes. We don't expect you to rent the place if you don't like it. It is your decision, you can't expect to come in and renovate it like it was "your" home. If we did make it like our home you would like and appreciate it but the next person may trash it. We just did the basics and left it move in clean. That was the top compliment of our renters, even in the low income area. We did not buy in the low income, my husband rented in a temporary housing development put in by the government for A/C workers during the war. When it was no longer need they could not tear it down because it would displace to many people. When the government sold it he bought the one he lived in. He never got rid of anything even homes he had lived in.