Garden Plant Pots

I have no idea about gardening and have recently moved into a new house. In a moment of stupidity, I ripped out all the plants in the garden beds along the sides of the driveway. I am going to rebuild the garden but have no clue as to what I should put there.

I live in Melbourne so it needs to be something that can deal with both cold and hot weather.

I don’t want flowery type stuff but more shrubs/plants.

It also needs to be relatively low maintenance.

I also don’t want to have to do much to the soil, etc - I just want to put the plants in and go with it.

Any help/ideas would be much appreciated.
Sorry, Melbourne in Australia

I have set out the corner of my garden for planting, as it was previously a bit mossy and quite damp. I have dug it over now and would like to make a nice arrangement but would like some suggestions as to what I can plant there. I was thinking of maybe some cordylines, conifers etc, basically low maintenance.

I am removing grass from a hard-to-mow sunny area and want to replace it with some low maintenance plants or flowers (i.e., something that doesn’t have to be watered a lot). I live in the midwest. It is a fairly large area so cheaper would be better; I think I might plant in the fall or next spring. Any suggestions?

This shrub (or small tree?) will need to be planted in a fairly large, shallow planter with with good drainage. The front garden (yard) is quite small and the shrub will be in front of a bay window, so would not like something that grows too densely as it would block the light. The small front garden is also north-facing. I have the opposite of green fingers, so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.