Starting with poor soil mixed with rocks, bark dust, small construction debris, etc.

Hello. Our kids have grown and gone. So we do
downsized into a smaller but newly built low-maintenance house.

The builder had a semi random assortment of shrubs planted. Most have done fine. A few had root rot last summer.

When we moved it is was just bark dust over the semi cleaned up construction debris area and the shrubs in the pic but smaller. There’s some decent soil here and there. But most of it is a mix of rocks, hard pan, concrete chunks, etc.

It also drains a bit slow.

We’d like to have some greenery fill in the open areas pictured. It would be nice if those filled in areas were walkable… at least by our little dog and small grand children.

I’m wondering about micro clover? We’re happy to remove some of the clutter of so many shrubs as well. We have a place next to a walkway on the side of the house we could move them.

Would we need to excavate down a little and remove some fill and replace with nicer soil? When would be a good time to plant the clover? Or what other ideas for what to plant?

We’d hire some help as I use a wheelchair and don’t want my wife to over do it as she tends to get a little gung ho with project. Haha.

Thank you for your input and any guidance for our situation.