No matter what I do to the front yard whether grass, sod and plants they simply will not live longer than 3 weeks to a month.  Yard, you win, I give up.  I finally admitted the yard won.  While I still have half the front yard outside the fence with nice grass, here is the before and after pictures of the new yard redo.    This is permanent so I should be done for good this time.   Along with the pile of rocks I started with.  5 yards is a whole lotta rock.