Ruth, I will tell you a simple way to make a bed. Just get a tape measure and mark off an equal distance from the wall of the house, say five feet. Then cut and remove the grass on that line. Since the bed is already there I would measure it at its deepest and use that distance down the length of the house. Like this:I like the more rounded bed around the tree so I would leave that. I am not a fan of anything over five or six inches growing forward of the path so if it were my garden I would reseed grass in the cut out strip that follows the path to the driveway. On the South side of the house I would straighten out the lawn strip like below. I am a big fawn of lawn so this is what I would do. Another alternative is to remove it from the area and install groundcover. I did not take the time to fill in along the path but it is what I would want. As you can see, I am not a professional. These are just my personal tastes.

The retaining wall is about two feet high between the front yard and the street. You can see it in the pictures with light brown blocks as the wall itself. In the middle of it, there are two planters and a stair as show in this picture below. This is a needed wall due the difference in height between the yard and the street. There is also a small brick wall in front of the house that you can see in the photos as well. The small brick wall nearest to the house is decorational only. I dislike the stone walls that are attached to the house. You can see that around the corner of the house and around the front door. Reminds me of the Flintstone's house. And of course, the air conditioners sticking out the walls of the house have got to go too.

That looks a lot like a Camellia (maybe C. sasanqua?) to me. Has it ever bloomed? It may not that far south. If that's what it is, it's evergreen and doesn't get huge, maybe 10-12 feet. I'd find out for sure before I take them out. They don't have invasive roots, so they won't hurt the foundation or grow up into the house. Even if they don't ever bloom, they are beautiful evergreen shrubs. I'm not good at landscaping, so I have no other recommendations.

Added photos that show the whole front of the house and yard would help. Stand 15 ‘ or 20’ from the front door and take one photo straight on and without moving to another spot take one or two slightly overlapping photos to the left and right so that we can see all the way from the left side of the property to the right, and up to the roof line of the house. Plantings need to be in context, so we need to see windows, doors, other plantings, etc. so it all works together and looks proportional to the building. For instance, are there trees shading this spot? Is it a one or two story house and how big is the roof overhang? What do the current shrubs look like? Since you aren’t in a desert area, an organic mulch such as shredded bark mulch or chopped leaves will work much better than stone for your mulch. Knowing the nearest big city will help as well so we can have an idea of soil pH. In my area, acid loving plants like Rhododendrons do well, but in areas with more neutral or alkaline soils, they aren’t happy.