Because this is a rental unit, I cannot say whether anything I suggest is something you can or should do. That is decision only you can make.

Paint the front door in a nice bright eye catching color that flows with the house color.

The trees? The owners or the city's? They look like they might be Live Oak. Limb them up so you can see under them better.

On the left you have dramatic tropical foliage in a White Bird of Paradise. On the right you have boring sheared meatball shrubs. You need some balancing textural drama on the right side too. Think large foliage. Think big giant Elephant Ear leaves. Think large bromeliads. Think gingers.

It would be nice if you could yank the meatballs and redo the entire bed with a better shape, but you can hide them with giant dramatic foliage.

Cover the dyed red mulch with undyed natural looking mulch. Dyed mulch,, red in particular, just screams tacky.

I'm here in S Fl too and your home looks like it could be in an HOA controlled community. Because you are renting you would need to get approval from the owners (in writing) and they would have to get approval from the HOA architectural control committee (could have a different name) - also in writing for any changes to the exterior including landscaping or painting or even tree trimming before the work is started. There are substantial fines usually if you make exterior changes of any type before the written HOA approval is issued.

I like the ideas posted above - but please don't do anything without contacting your landlord first.

Adding on to the good advice already given, I think your end goals are not different than what they would be if you were the homeowner, but what of them you choose to undertake, and the manner in which you do it, may be quite different. Instead of buying plants, you might choose to start your own. (To a great extent, that is what I do when landscaping for myself.) It's very low cost and in my experience, doesn't add much to the time it takes to develop a landscape. Plants grow very fast in Florida.

The low hanging tree branches give the property a neglected look so I'd get them limbed up as one of the first things. It's basically free except for a few hand tools, and the work doesn't require any more than commonsense knowledge.

A next step would be to improve the care for the grass. (Trimming the lower tree branches will help let more light get to the grass.) Look into weeding and fertilizing and proper mowing for the type of grass it is.

The BOP is much too large to be placed so close to the center of the house and the path to the entrance. The same plant would be fine if it were pushed leftward, over toward the lot line. I'd consider moving it. As a counterpoint to balance it out, a tree form of some type would make sense alongside the plain garage wall. Something like Jatropha might work well there.

The current shrub scheme perplexes me. I can't understand why any of those are arranged as they are. I'd simplify it with one below the right window. The central windows are so low, they don't need shrubs. It would be a better place for annual color, as a "window box" scheme, or groundcover.

Reshape and widen the beds to fit better with the large plants and so as to reinforce the entrance path. Filling the beds with low groundcover would help tie things together and if you use perennial peanut, would help to perk up the overall look with some color.

If somehow you could enlarge the landing at the entrance, the house would look more inviting.

Great advice already, I just wanted to give support as a fellow renter (regarding landscaping). We sold our house and decided to rent for a while ... I went from having a yard that won awards to having a yard with not one plant. No way could I live that way!

We’ve been here two years now and it looks really nice. Neighbors compliment us all the time. The biggest challenge has been: How much do we spend on a house we don’t own? I think we found a good balance for us. We definitely heard lots of, “WHY are you spending time and money on someone else’s house?!” Well, right now it’s our house and we’ve enjoyed every dime spent. :) We’re well aware we won’t get it back financially, but the investment has still been worth it for us, because we love landscaping and have a passion for it. I totally understand not everyone feels that way.

I did things a bit different than if this was our “forever” home. I keep future renters in mind, so have planted with more drought-tolerant plantings, small to mid-size shrubs (so that nothing can get overgrown with lack of care), smaller beds, easy care perennials, native ornamental grasses, ground covers. I’ve used bird baths, yard art, etc, to fill in some areas. I do annuals in pots and hanging baskets, rather than in beds. We found free rock to use as edging and boulder art (check your local trade pages online and/or ask around for plants, hardscape, anything).

It’s tough for me to not go overboard, to not to do exactly what I want .... it’s been a lesson in restraint. But very rewarding! Our house looks loved. And you have more to start with than we did, it’s really going to look nice! Enjoy!

(PS: We aren’t in an HOA, great advice from Denita about checking on that.)

ETA: Just noticed your hell strip. IF you can plant there (and even want to!), I wanted to share how we did ours here — one side is quite long, so I just dug up a bed around 4-5 ft long on each side of the driveway. I planted a few drought tolerant perennials around Mexican Feather grass in the center of each one. I used stone as border in between the beds and grass. We have lots of dog walkers and they always express appreciation at what we’ve planted. :)

This was in spring, by summer they’ve filled in completely. I broke this side up with a stepping stone/rock and Asian Jasmine. This was the smaller strip that meets the neighbor’s, you see we left grass on the other side. Even doing just a small section at least breaks up all the boring grass (and uses less irrigation). It’s made a big difference in curb appeal. Literally. :D