I have a new build house and the garden soil is terrible. Heavy clay with rubble about a couple of foot down. I could have wept when we first dug around.
But, I have fruit trees, a huge budlea, some St John's Wort shrubs, which were free because birds dropped berries which planted themselves. Much of what we've planted is cheap and easy to grow. I don't have anything fancy. I even made a wildlife pond out of a window box which I buried in the soil. I have herbs, a wisteria, lemon balm, a forsythia, honeysuckle, two grapevines, raspberry canes, lavender, a hawthorn and mint, a hydrangea and some flowers in a window box. Anything that looks poorly gets chucked, I don't worry about it or faff on trying to resurrect it as the soil is poor and not everything will thrive. It's trial and error. All the plants I've listed are easy to grow and cheap to buy. Add Grow More fertiliser every so often and water in dry weather.
Patches of our shaded grass died so we put down stone chippings and large rocks as ornaments and interest.
To those who don't have much time. Plant a miniature fruit tree and a budlea, for the insects. If you don't like cutting grass, put some flagstones and chippings down to reduce the lawn burden. Just have a smaller patch of grass. Everything can be made easier and less work.