What to do with this messy area?

[toomuchlikemyusername]

Hello all
I've attached two photos of an uncared for part of my garden and am looking for some advice as to what might work here.
It's a shaded spot, rarely gets any sun. Very heavy clay soil that's either a solid, wet mess, or a solid, bone dry mess.
It's covered with a layer of stunted weeds that are almost impossible to dig out. The section of border is about 1m deep, 3m long. It has the added bonus of the roots of a massive conifer that used to be there previously.
It's faced by a very tired and weedy gravel area that I'd like to get rid of.
I'm not much of a gardener and in my mind's eye I'm seeing a bit of a wildflower, bee friendly area that looks attractive and doesn't need a huge amount of maintenance.
Any thought/advice would be much appreciated. Challenges include low (almost zero) budget and not a huge amount of time or help either.
Many thanks

If it is shady, then perhaps you could move a seat there from elsewhere in the garden, so you have somewhere to sit in hot sunny weather. Or would it be a good place to site a compost area?

Wild flowers grow best in sun, so that might not work. Ferns do quite well in dry shade, and Morrisons often sells them fairly cheap. The only thing to do with the gravel is either sling some weedkiller on it, or get down on your hands and knees and weed it out. You could always remove the gravel, and then put a weed-suppressing membrane down, then put the gravel back down on top.

B&M do cheap gardening stuff.

Personally I’d create a shaded seating area. Have the bbq there ect

Wilko is amazing for value for money plants. I would fork it over plant lots of dry loving ferns and cover with ornamental bark. For colour plant some nasturtium, and calendula in pots and when they are big enough to plant out they will love the impoverished soil. It you start them off in posts in e ready to plant out in about 4 weeks. Alternatively wait to May and put them straight into the soil,

What about a shady seed mix on the soil, and see what happens?
Alternatively, cover the soil with old carpet, kill the weeds, then spend time digging in compost before planting?
What are you thinking of replacing the gravel with? A hard surface is probably there because grass doesn't grow very well. If you weed it (or use the weed killer or membrane suggestions above), would ig look ok?

Periwinkle is pretty?

Hellebore? Ferns? Or go more naturalistic with things like ramsen (wild garlic) (yum) and red campion (herb Robert). These will all cost a couple of quid only and spread.

Lanium is another great weed suppressor.

Chicken coop...

Watching with interest as i have exactly the same problem! A shady corner where nothing grows except moss. Even the grass has died! Added problem of solid clay impossible to dig. Tried Clay Breaker but it's so bad i don't think that will do it.

If it's shady and unpromising, I'd make it a wildlife area and build a big bug mansion.

www.edenproject.com/learn/for-everyone/how-to-build-an-insect-home

A small water feature helps wildlife as well, even a bucket! (I've two frogs living in a bucket in my garden).

You could also make a hedgehog house.

www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/diy/how-to-make-a-hedgehog-house/

Of course, you could also combine several of the ideas here and above, get a pack of wildflower seeds and scatter them in some soil on top of the bug mansion.

Thank you all for the ideas. I will be studying and researching over the coming days in the hope that with a bit of forward planning, I could put to good use any possible self isolation time.

Lonicera pileata is a great evergreen shrub for shady sites, the stems root when they reach the soil and it provides good cover for hedgehogs to nest.