[Dan in Pasadena]

The "red stuff" may be redwood mulch. Basically, shredded redwood. As you can imagine, it isn't cheap and it needs to be put on to a decent depth to truly shade the soil below and act as (somewhat) of a weed deterrant. If you're really planning on a major redo, then David is right. Get a plan together before your start randomly doing stuff.

I can tell you that everyone wants "low maintenance" but few people adequately plan landscaping so that it really will be and fewer still actually LIKE what a true low maintenance landscape looks like. Hacking off the top of that ivy without a good kill on the roots and spreading around mulch (of whatever type) is NOT low maintenance....but it'll let you THINK it is low maintence. Until the weeds start coming up through the mulch, you don't get down there and spray or weed them out until after they get a foothold and guess what? You're off to the races again maintaining something that doesn't look as nice as what you could make out of what you already have. Best of luck!