Please help with my lawn and beds

I live in Houston and the front of our house faces west. You can see in the pictures below that all the bushes on the north side of our walkway died while south side survived over the past few freezes and whatever other conditions they were subjected to including getting way more water than the south side of our house because our neighbor to the north has all kinds of stuff in their yard they are constantly watering.

The yard:

I aerated very well and put down weed and feed in the spring. The St. Aug just never spread. Reading online it mentions putting down some sand to give the runners a chance to spread. Our dirt is pretty much rock hard at this point. What should I do now before winter and what should I do again in spring to give it the best chance to regrow? Or is this a dig up and resod the lawn situation?



Prepping the beds:
The boxwoods and gold splash windcreepers on the north side were already dead and pulled out. I've stirred up the dirt, there is clay about 4" below the soil. I was thinking putting some large rocks along the wall to protect the lattice then build up the beds 4-6" with compost?? The boxwoods on the south side survived and we will likely replant boxwoods in the same place on the north side. Any recommendation on what to plant behind the boxwoods? The gold splash windcreepers survived on the south side and I just dug them up, but we want to put something different in, maybe something perennial that flowers.

I know we are coming up on winter. What would be recommendation as to what to do now or what we should wait for spring to do? Wife is in a rush, but I don't want to plant stuff and it not survive winter.