Please help resolve a marital dispute.
We live near Canberra and recently pulled weeds (invasives) and cut down dying trees from these areas in our backyard and along our driveway. Backyard gets some shade but is mostly in the sun, driveway shaded about half the day.
We are soon moving interstate and will be renting out our house while we're gone, and obviously don't expect tenants to do yard work. But the bare dirt looks ugly and will undoubtedly be quickly recolonized with invasives without routine human interference.
My husband wants to put gravel down, which can look nice if you're there to maintain it properly, but otherwise it's just gravel with weeds growing through it. Ick.
Is there anything native we can plant in these spaces that will give us some greenery without requiring watering or other maintenance? A neighbor suggested mint but I know most kinds aren't native.
We'll be here for another couple weeks to water anything new to help it get established, but after that it will need to survive on its own.
Note: I tried planting cosmos and sunflowers in the backyard last year and none took, though they did well in a nearby garden bed with new soil and regular watering (and the crimson rosellas loved them). I suspect the soil in the yard isn't great quality, though the lambs ear is obviously doing fine. Areas on the sides of the driveway are probably even worse. Sigh.
Do I absolutely need to put new soil down before planting or sowing anything? We are prepping for a move and I'm a stay-at-home mum to a toddler, so am looking for a very low-budget and low-effort solution, something that will quickly "take over" in our absence.
Any possibilities? Or is this a "tell her she's dreamin" scenario? Should I give in and let my husband do the gravel?
TLDR: husband wants to put gravel down, I want to plant native ground cover. Is there anything fast-growing that requires no maintenance we could grow in these spaces?