Need Help!

I've been needing to update the landscaping in front of my house for the past few years. The people that lived there before me put alot of pride and time into gardening and landscaping in front of the house. Unfortunately for my neighbors, I'm not that kind of person. I have no time or desire to keep up with this sort of stuff, so over the last few years the landscaping in front of my home has gotten way out of hand. I've wanted to do something about it, but the time and money have never come together at once.

At this point, I've come to the realization that the only way it's going to be fixed is if I take a much more basic approach. I was hoping I could get some advice on here about what sort of plants or whatever to use that would be pretty inexpensive and most importantly extremely maintenance free. Also bearing in mind that I am very much not the handyman or laborer type of person, so if it is very complicated for me to do myself then I'm out of luck.

If I take some pictures of the front of my house etc, is this something anyone can give me some help/advice with?

In order to help you select appropriate plants we'll need to know your zone and amount of sun you get in an average day. How about rain, or do you have a watering system?

I live in Texas about 30 miles from the Gulf. I'm not sure what you mean by zone or how I know how much sun we get in an average day or rain. But I would say we get alot of rain and alot of sun. The humidity is crazy high. Everything grows like crazy which is why I'm not sure about what I can use that is low maintenance.

Try this link and plug in your zip code

http://www.garden.org/zipzone/

Pictures are needed so that we can identify what you have. It could be that what is there now simply needs refining. Often, over time, beds get crowded and look unkept. No garden bed is care free. The fastest and easiest maintenance is mowing. But if you want garden beds some care is required. Weeding is never done. Nature is relentless that way. If anything is dead it should be removed.

On the amount of sun--it's not about how many sunny days you have, it's about on a typical sunny day how many hours of sun does that part of your yard get. That's what'll determine what plants you can grow there. If that part of the yard is in the shadow of the house or a large tree all day it'll be very different types of plants that will be happy there vs if the sun is beating down on the bed for 6+ hrs out of the day.

Zone 8b. I'll get some pictures and put them on here. Just to warn you tho, it looks really bad. On a scale from 1-10 it is definetly a 10. There are a couple of hedges that are dead and need to be removed. I just need to figure out what I need to put in its place.

You know how you see some people with rocks down so they won't get any weeds and having cactus there. That is something along the lines of the maintenance I'm envisioning. However, I have young kids that are too adventurous so the cactus would not work.

We're in zone 11 with salt in the air here in Cocoa Beach, FL. Kalanchoe is my favorite for bright spots of color. Very hardy, easy to grow and requires very little care. Can be put in the ground or kept in pots.

There is no surface that gets no weeds except pavement and even there if there is a crack. You have made it clear how low maintenance you want. The hedge that is dead should not be replaced. Crushed rock, sprayed with glyphosate 3 or 4 times a year, is as easy as it gets. Not too friendly to children though.