How about zeroscaping or xeriscaping for the front yard? However since the lawn is already dead, it's going to take time money and maintenance to do anything with it. So if the current tenants really don't care, you may as well save your money and wait until the day you want t sell or re-rent it. Unless the neighbors are complaining! Some ideas: zeroscaping xeriscaping Xeri and Zeroscaping

Meet with a local landscape designer so you can address the entire plan for your home, both landscape and hardscape. It looks like your driveway could use some repair so you want to take that into account. I don't know MA plantings so I'm no help there, but I do think you could have a more inviting entry without having the asphalt run up to the steps. Maybe the parking pad could be made of different material or relocated or reshaped. This is where a great landscape designer comes in:) I like your home very much! A little softening around the entry and larger beds with a defined walkway would really enhance your entire entrance and curb appeal. https://www.houzz.com/projects/60080/lexington-historic-home

I would expand the walk as far as the side of the window nearest the door and replace the scalloped edging with a flush masonry mowing strip, brick to match the house if possible. Notice in Yardvaark’s sketch that the plants in front of the porch are low. On the porch I would want a bench, a couple of chairs with a little table or a rectangular planter under the window. To match the tree framing the house on the left side I would add a similarly sized one to the right Of the garage. Plantings in the front bed should be a combo of flowering plants and evergreens so there is something of interest year round.. Some plants can fill both roles. Right now your house has white, brick, blue-green and creamy yellow, which to my eye is too many different colors, some of which don’t work well together. I would likely remove all the shutters or at least the downstairs ones, replacing the uppers with shutters that are half the width of the windows. For the long term, plan on painting the garage doors a midtone brown that you pull from the brick so they don’t stand out so much. Start saving to repaint the house a color that works better with the brick, either the same brown as the garage doors or a sage green. I would also look into getting a wrap that makes the porch pillar look more substantial. When you decide on the color of the house and garage door, then replace the lights and repaint the front door in colors that will work with the new paint scheme such as a bronze finish. You have a cute house, it just needs a bit of tweaking to bring out its best.

Looking good with the roof, washing and cleaning out around the tree area. I agree that the yews need to be shorter, even by 6” so they don’t look so overwhelming to anything you might put in between. Take out the scrubby bushes and add something less structured like variegated spirea (bridal wreath). Get the 5 gal size and plant 1-2 so the space looks filled but not crowded. Add more of the giant liriope across the length of the front porch. Focus color on the porch in good sized pots; if you can, curve the beds in front of the liriope and add some color plants there, too. I like your idea of using white flowering plants — if you put some in pots, use pots in a solid accent color like bright (not lime!) green.