Texas Gardening: Eyesore front garden bed - would like suggestions, 1 by LiseP

LiseP wrote:
Greetings. I'm new on DG, but hope to stay a long while, learn heaps and eventually be helpful to others.

Here, I'm posting 2 pics of my front garden bed to see what you all would do with it. I'll post the long view first to give you some perspective, and the second pic will be a close-up to give you an idea of the size of the area. Of course, we are in mid-winter so things look particularly ugly, but even in summer, this area needs a lot of help. What would you advise a gardening beginner such as myself to do to make this front yard look presentable?

Notes:
-The live oak makes it shady
- There's a layer of rock just a few inches below the surface
-NE side of the house,
-San Antonio has periodic watering restrictions.
-The only flowering thing that is in there now is the ring of perennial plant around the live oak, which provides tiny pink flowers during much of the year.
-The bushes that flank the window probably need to stay. The windows are to our bedroom and we want them for an added sense of privacy.
-Preferred colors for flowers would be in the pinks/purples/blues/white.

I'm thinking that I'd like to focus on xeriscape and low maintenance -- maybe create a bed that is largely mulch (but what?), punctuated with a few perennials that would stay fairly neat-looking. We'd love some things that would flower.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated. We've lived here three years and it's time that I fix this. Stay tuned for the second pic.