Affordable garden in new construction - how to proceed best?

Clover is not suitable for children who sometimes go barefoot, as the flowers attract bees and wasps.

I always recommend drawing a plan with driveway, house, terrace, and so on. West of a terrace (that is _at_ the terrace) you need some wind protection. This is usually achieved with 2-3 shrubs that grow 2-3 meters high. Then you should simply mark the sight lines from the sofa, dining chairs, and possibly the kitchen island: what do you want to see in the garden there? A play paradise? - a beautiful solitary tree or a flower bed? - or the future garden house? And just as you arrange candles or Easter decorations on the sideboard (high at the back, flat at the front), you proceed the same way with a bush, a spherical evergreen, and so on.
We do have a nice garden thread here that shows quite a bit of beautiful design.
And if the planting doesn't please after all, it can be changed again.

Are they actually gravelled front gardens or driveways?

I'm not really well-versed in this. I would have initially called the part that can be driven on the driveway, which was usually paved. The areas next to it in the front garden were filled with gravel/crushed stone. In some cases, based on the boundaries, I would have guessed that some were once normal flowerbeds or something like that until they caught on from the neighbors. Many of the houses were not too far from the street, so the area was not very large. A few were set back, and there were then larger areas with gravel/crushed stone and possibly a few small rock garden bushes. Generally, in some of these gravel areas, there were these bushes (which speaks for “I would call it a front garden”), but I think more than half was simply stone, no plants.
It caught my eye immediately because I also know the efforts to green even small areas. To be fair, I have to say that what I could see of the gardens behind the houses looked more green. But the impression of this “Stop sealing surfaces!” sign in a street full of stone front gardens (we’re talking roughly about 25 houses of which somehow 2 did not have it) was pretty striking.

and at the same time stumbled upon a book title “The Garden for Intelligent Lazy People”

Sounds just right for me ;)

You can of course just sow grass everywhere first. Over the years you have more time for the garden, you can plan something.

That might be something for or maybe he already had something similar in mind before the other forum members were totally shocked by his first “just grass” suggestion ;) The point that it doesn’t have to be more complicated or expensive otherwise is definitely something worth knowing regarding the initial question (how to make a cheap garden). Maybe he’ll find the time to deal with it more and implement something else after all. But I can also understand if that’s not the highest priority and maybe will happen later or over time.

There was once a post somewhere in the forum where a forum member only scattered a wildflower meadow mix the first year and the photo was beautiful (and the person was considering maybe keeping it that way despite the original plan). I’ve had that as an option in mind since then too, in case we don’t initially have the nerves/money/time to delve deeper.

Gravel does not seal. Many use it as a bed cover. Instead, you can use ground cover plants because nature benefits from them. It is also cheaper. Gravel itself also has the disadvantage (like paving) that you get problems with weeds in the "joints".

So a gravel and crushed stone garden may not be good for many reasons, but it does not seal the ground. In this respect, the sign is not really contradicted. It does not say: "Provide a home for bees and other little creatures!" And insofar as it is not really just gravel and crushed stone, but also adapted bushes, such a garden can be, for example, a very good habitat for lizards. If you have very sandy soil anyway, it may even be better (in terms of environmental friendliness) to adapt to it than to turn a piece of wasteland into a garden of Eden with a lot of watering. There are always shades of gray between black and white.

such a garden can be a really great habitat for lizards, for example.

Exactly! I'm curious to hear what , our OP, has to report once the little creatures have moved into his gabion terrace partition :D

If you want to do something for lizards, I would always prefer a dry stone wall made of natural stone. It usually blends nicely into the landscape, and if you build it double-layered, you can also plant something on top and not just in the cracks. Some hanging greenery breaks up the wall ;)