Im also in zone 9, although in a colder spot (San Joaquin Valley). I have been working on my front and back yards with the ultimate goal of creating a very low-maintenance landscape. You can see my progress so far in the Cacti and Succulents forum. I included the link below. Good luck! Josh Here is a link that might be useful: Succulent Garden Progress

I am using a bunch of different vines to cover fences on 3 sides of my yard in 10b. I snickered to myself as I chose the blue sky vine (Thunbergia grandiflora) to go on the side where the neighbor I don't like is, since it is considered by some to be an invasive monster as well as beautiful. I have Confederate jasmine starter plants, Mandevilla, and sky vine which are growing so fast I am truly beside myself. A sturdy broad trellis for jasmine would make a great screen and no problem to do well in 9b I would think. The sky vine you should research and see if you want to do since I have seen discussions on line to the tune of "DO NOT PLANT THIS IN YOUR GARDEN!" (Clearly I follow the sage advice of others more experienced than myself.) Mandevilla may be too tropical for 9b and does not get as big as the others, but is amazingly fast as a twiner and grower, and soooooo gorgeous. No doubt others have vines to recommend. The only caution is the issue of wind sturdiness and hurricane planning, as we talked about in the post linked below. You could always set up a camera on a tripod with a huge zoom lens and stand in your yard at odd hours pointing it at their house. I bet they will pop up a fast privacy screen for you. Gina Here is a link that might be useful: winds and hurricanes and big garden structures

The lawn is the easy part. Post this picture in the Lawn Care forum to get a head start. It is likely too late to do a great renovation, but you could drop a mix of fescue, rye, and Kentucky bluegrass as a start. But lets start with the soil. You probably hate it. If you think you need more topsoil, you don't. If anything I might be inclined to remove some of the crown in the yard to improve drainage toward the street. With a basement the last thing you want to do is create a dam that backs up rain and melting snow into the house. If you look at the bricks on the house, there should be a bottom brick. The bottom of that brick is the sill of the house. Measure down 4 inches and that is where the top of the soil should be. If you have soil higher than 4 inches below the sill, then consider removing some. I see houses every day where the owners have brought in topsoil to "improve" the soil. That doesn't work. New soil is not better soil. Regardless of whether you remove soil or leave it all, it can be improved. This soil looks desiccated which is very hard on the microbes in the soil. It is the microbes that develop a healthy soil. Get 2 hoses, 2 turbo-type oscillator sprinklers, and a Y type splitter for your hose faucet. Also get a hose end sprayer that has a bottle for applying liquids. Put about 4-5 ounces of shampoo into the sprayer bottle and fill it with water. Spray the shampoo over the yard evenly until the bottle is empty. Then it is time to water that shampoo in. Arrange the hoses and sprinklers to cover the lawn on full sweep. Then put out tuna cans to catch the water around the yard. Time how long it takes to fill all the tuna cans. For my oscillator it takes 8 full hours, so you're in this for awhile. If you see runoff at any point, immediately stop watering and let the moisture soak into the soil for 15 to 30 minutes. Then restart the watering and the timer. Stop as often as needed to prevent runoff. When the cans are full stop the timer. The time on the timer is the time you will be watering in the future unless or until you install underground sprinklers. The shampoo followed by the deep watering is all you need to do to reawaken the soil microbes. If you want to make them really happy, apply an organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizers feed the microbes and keep your soil healthy. This will give your yard a huge boost for whatever grass or planting you do in the future. Once you have an inch of water in the soil, that might be the last time you need to water this year. You should see the existing grass respond as well as old and new weeds. That is all good. If you do not seed grass this fall, like immediately, you should know that spring is a poor time to seed new grass. Why? Because spring is when the summer annual weeds are sprouting. Crabgrass is the main culprit, but there are others. Fall is better simply to avoid those weeds. But if you do seed in the spring, just know that everything can be fixed next August when you seed again. Lawn care is as easy as watering (properly), mowing, and fertilizing. Watering is easy enough with the oscillators, so don't get excited about spending thousands on an in-ground system. You won't need to mow until you have grass. For now a string trimmer would work wonders. I've "mowed" my entire lawn with a string trimmer, so it can be done. As for fertilizing, apply any organic fertilizer at 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. That helps the soil which help the plants. Read some posts on the Lawn Care forum and see if you want to get involved with that.

How much standing water did you have in your yard? Other than breeding mosquitoes, I wouldn't worry about standing water in my neighbors yard, better theirs than yours . . . however, if you have drainage issues on your property, that's dependent on slope. I can't tell the slope, but from a casual glance, it looks like your yard is the higher ground so drains into theirs. I wouldn't plant a rose garden in an area of standing water. I'd either do a rain garden or a french drain, as some have suggested. Then plant the rose garden outside of that zone. The rain garden and/or french drain will hold and slowly release the water so they will take care of that part, leaving another higher ground area for the roses . . . Roses like moist conditions so if it's just occasionally for a few hours after a rain maybe not a big issue if the roses are the right kind. I love me some "Rosa palustris" which is the native swamp rose, it would do fine there, it is a stunning bloomer but not repeat. But of course roses hate dampness, so if the water is there for any length of time it's not going to work for other roses. Figure out a way to drain it away first, then deal with the roses part . . .