Low budget dry shade yard

I've struggled a lot with this yard! But never really considered putting in a lawn. It's dry and shady, in the shadow and roots of a big beautiful linden tree that you can't see in these pics, and the previous owners had completely filled the whole area with gravel. Lots of plants that I love for shade, like fringe leafed bleeding hearts, Indian pinks, native maidenhair fern, and most heuchera varieties that I've tried have withered away or just not thrived. I think because it's so dry and quick draining. It's like a rock garden with barely any sun. Its been a tricky lesson in "right plant right place."

Most of the plants in here I got through divisions from other gardeners and propagation from seed or cuttings to keep costs down. Now I'm slowly working on replacing some of the non native things with more natives, trying out a plant or two of each and seeing what I can get to grow well, then propagating what works.

We also started out with a tree that the previous owners had planted right up against the over 100 year old foundation, that we tried keeping at first. It wasn't very healthy in the shade of the linden, and growing up into the house and porch. We ultimately ended up deciding to cut it down.

Northeast, zone 7b