If you are considering buying a house with little or no yardscaping, or have already purchased one, you may have now realized that when a house is advertised as "professionally landscaped", it really means that the yard comes with a handful of foundation plantings consisting of several yew bushes, a rhododendron, and maybe a couple of arborvitae (if you are really lucky).

If you have been fortunate enough to buy an older home (approximately >50 years old) then chances are you will have wonderful soil and be able to grow just about anything with little effort.  If you were not, which is my case in my current home, then you will be cursing the contractors who built your house knowing that they carefully scraped down twelve inches of beautiful loam to sell, replaced eight inches with broken glass, rocks, and sand, and then replaced the top four inches with average dirt (insert heavy sigh here).  (On the plus side, as we have dug holes for planting, we have carefully set aside those rocks and stones and used them as  an accent along the foundation of the house to help with drainage and provide a barrier from spraying dirt when it rains).

It is possible to amend your soil; it make take some time, though, so if this is your first foray into planting a garden choose plant varieties that are not soil particular (day lilies, etc).  If a plant is drought resistant, I have found, it will usually perform in drier soils which will be the case if you have a lot of sand and rock in your yard.  You can take your time amending your soil, using compost scraps from the table, mulched leaves from the fall cleanup, and even spreading used coffee grounds by your plants that don't mind (or love!) acid.  These small actions will go a long way towards improving your soil.