Ideas to beautify front yard?

https://www.south-florida-plant-guide.com/groundcover-plants.html

Hi Peggy they make a rubber "mulch" now that is made out of recycled tires that come in multiple colors and can be really pretty!

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/plants-flowers-plant-shade-near-oak-trees-45002.html

If it were me, i would put a planter around the base of the tree (the decorative large bricks like for walls or log types made for fencing or stacking) and fill it with potting soil about 6 inches deep. Then I would plant hostas of various sorts and other plants that like shade. How beautiful that would be!

Vinca minor or periwinkle, with its dark green leaves and purple or white spring flowers, is a perfect, easy-care groundcover plant that grows well even in fairly dense shade. Another old standby, Pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis), boast relatively insignificant flowers, but handsome dark green foliage. Ivy leafed cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium) blooms in the fall, with pink, orchid-like blossoms. The distinctively patterned leaves appear in the spring. For lighter shade, farther from the tree's trunk, evergreen Mexican or Santa Barbara daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus) provides an ongoing supply of small, white daisies.

I'm not sure of what will go in your yard but I can tell you don't build up a box around the base. Not all trees can handle having inches of soil covering their trunk. Even the roots may not handle having dense coverage added over them. Be careful with ground covers that vine etc. They can go from being pretty to invasive. Periwinkle and ivies become a nuisance plant quickly. I've learned that when someone says "It can become invasive" believe them, no matter how much land you want to cover. Can become invasive is not code, I've found that out the hard way.

One plant I recall my friend growing in the shade in FL was impatiens, up here they are annuals but there I believe they can be grown year round.