I guess beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Your plants are reaching their mature size. I'm not a fan of the perfectly pedicured shrubs and perennials, and that's what the first several photos look like to me. In my mind, the way your germanders and shrubs look now is what a maturing germander should look like.If you're looking for the manicured look you can cut your perennials back and allow them to produce new growth. Otherwise, you can pull them all out and start over with new plants.

Badly damaged lavenders are hard to return to a state of prettiness. Pull them out and look for replacements. You can grow some smaller lavenders from seed to save money, and just grow new ones every year.

I don't like overly manicured plantings either - but I guess in these photos the problem isn't apparent... The lavenders have huge chunks missing from frost damage and one is 90%dead black and now moldy. The germanders are doing great.

What are smaller and perhaps more upright varieties of lavenders I could grow? I love the bees and butterflies the lavender flowers attract.

Tall and narrow plants are what you need. Look in the Sunset Western Garden Book or do a search, "tall and narrow." You may need shade toleraters for one wall and sun toleraters for the other.

I like the more natual look but it's not my front entrance either. I thin my bush germander every other year, probably should do it every year. Just get down in there at the base and cut out the biggest ones. Probably 5-6 should do it. You'll be amazed how they will thin out just from a few cuttings. They branch out like crazy to get thick. Wait until they are done flowering.
I have one about 6 years old, another 2 yrs and 3 news ones last fall. I can't wait till they get big like yours. They are up on top of the slope so I'll let them go wild.
I have 2 goodwin creek lavenders and cut them back hard after 4 years and they grew out so nice.

Your garden does not look awful to me. It looks like success. If you want it more tidy then get shears and go to it.

Reevaluate your plantings. Is there anything not doing well in that area? Perhaps a plant that you just don't love? Some people over plant in the beginning to make it look more lush. As plants grow they remove some of the filler plants.
Is this the size they get after you shear them? Don't be hasty to remove the lavender. It may surprise you.

It would be useful for you to learn about pinching and other means of manipulating a plant so it does what you want.

I have learned a lot from lurking in the perennials forum.

Your garden walkway does not look awful. I am going to throw in with bob_b and recommend some taller spikes but add that some lower growing patches would add some drama as well. Perhaps some broader leaves in splashes too.

One thing I learned about lavender (a large growing English type - angustifolia, no cultivar name) is they become woody and are replaced every 3-4 years in my zone. Mine needed rigorous pruning every year after flowering to stay in bounds. It looked good for about 5 years. Then old wood began to split and now it's time for replacement.

I didn't have luck rooting starts (slips) last fall. Am going to try again.

'Munstead' is listed as 18 inches tall and wide.

One problem I have experienced is that nursery tags and photos on the internet always show either close up photos of the flowers and don't give a good picture of the mature plant. They give inaccurate mature size estimates, too. These lavenders were not supposed to get so wide, it said 18" wide by 24" tall... they are about that tall but 36" wide at least!

Any specific recommendations for plants to aesthetically and biologically work with the germander and this hot sunny spot, low water use, I am right on the border of sunset zone 15 and 17. You can probably see I used a palette of purple/blue and yellow. It was so spectacular last summer when everything was blooming, was proud of my garden :)

I did purposely overplant the area because I like the blended-together full look and figured not all the plants would flourish, and they did not. The Russian sages are pretty much gone, over-run by the germanders and lavenders perhaps but also just didn't seem to thrive in the baking heat last summer. The photo shows some shade but that's only there until 11am, the entire walkway gets very hot and full sun.

The lavenders are just a chopped up half dead mess now and they all have extensive mold in them, which didn't happen last winter when it was wetter - it is the frost damaged parts that grew the mold. They looked gorgeous last summer though (between the March 2013 and the March 2014 pictures) they reached full size and bloomed all summer and fall. I read that they need pruning to keep from splitting and reduce moisture buildup in winter which leads to mold, so that's why I pruned in later October.

Some of the other plants have mold too, such as the lantana and the one that I don't know the name of long narrow leaves and pretty blackberry colored bell shaped flowers in spikes...I tried to remove the moldiest parts of those plants. I don't understand why the mold when it has been so much drier this year than last winter, I guess it is elated to the frost damaging or weakening the plants and that allowed the mold to grow.

I did replace one lavender on the right with a blue spire sage , but I think I will look at other types of lavender and replace these sad looking ones, although it will look uneven and empty in spots for a while :(

Yes everything in Socal gets bigger than tags say...prime growing conditions.
You said "was proud of my garden ". You should still be very proud. Nothing to be unhappy about. You can only do what mother nature allows you to do.

I'm guessing you got the mold with cooler temps, sprinklers running and less sun due to narrow space not receiving sun and probably not much air flow either.
Don't bother with fern lavender if you get frost. Frost will get it very easily.
My goodwin creeks do fine all winter and I had heavy frost at leat 6 times this winter.
I have Russian sages also and they do go dormant in winter. Mine are being overrun by Ceanothus carmel creeper. You could try moving them.

For height you might try a petite Crape Myrtle or 2. My tags said 5 feet, so I expect 8.

A changing garden is a growing garden. We all make mistakes and our likes and dislikes change. So please don't be discouraged. You might have a couple bad spots, we all do, but at least everything isn't bad. A garden will never be perfect IMO.

Thin those Bush Germanders and you'll be happier instantly.

tinan you give us no clue as to where you garden. We have never had lavender damaged by frost in 20 years here. Iris gal has the correct culture for lavender. Our neighbor here grew 4 acres for commercial use and that was her strategy. I start cuttings in January with flowering beginning in July. Al