Plant help

We have a tall back hedge (pittosporum - mostly karo), and did have hebes planted in front of it - which looked great. But hebes look as if they have died off ( pruned too early and haven't recovered) - so want something to replace them.
Easy maintenance, lowish growing (60cm?), tidy looking, clay soil (that has been improved), sun most of the day. modern looking

Im stumped as to what to put in there - could do hebes again, but wondered if there was something even less maintenance ?

Any ideas?
TIA

We had a similar situation once - tall hedge, garden in which nothing would thrive, or even survive. We were sure the big hedge was draining the soil of any goodness therein. Gave up trying and put down weed mat covered with pebbles.

You could do something like Pittosporum Golf Ball or one of the "mounding" types that need minimal care but there isn't a whole heap of contrast in the form or texture. Another alternative would be one of the Lomandra's - a grass like plant that is tough and needs minimal maintenance. Otherwise, maybe a couple of specimen trees that could give you a contrast - say, in leaf colour - but that may possibly be only at certain times of the year. Prunus is a good one - you get blossom in spring and with most - good autumn colour. Or you could do something like Kowhai or maybe something like Liquidamber "Gumball" which is a smaller, almost self rounding tree that has amazing autumn colours. But, I have to add - there is no such thing as a no maintenance garden. Anything that is going to look good is going to take effort!

are the hebes actually totally dead? or just taking a while to recover, id water them and leave them for now and give them a chance to recover, its probably too hot to plant anything now anyway.

if the pittos are anything like feijoas, they will have roots out about four metres from the trunk. We have a garden than nothing flourishes in, but we do have the advantage of the fruit off the trees from next door, so haven't done any more about it.
In our case we are going to grow stuff in pots in the affected garden, so you could put ots in front of your pittos.
That way you could rotate the plants and always have something attractive in the front.
Something I've just planted is Spanish Shawl, bought the plants off here. They cascade, so am expecting a colourful waterfall effect as they grow and flower.
I bought some very attractive red tubs from the warehouse, I plant into black planterss, then put those planters in the red tubs. Easy to take out and put something else in their place.
There are a zillion things you could plant if you took that option.