Nature abhors a vacuum, so wherever there is open ground something will appear there. So you can make use of that. If you want to dig over some ground but a bit at a time, and with plans to eventually put somethings particular there. Then I often use nasturiums . The are pretty and spread about and give you some pretty flowers for now. But , there are quite easy to get rid of.So I once lived next to a really unpleasant individual, who moved next door to me after a very lovely old lady had died. She wasnt able to garden a lot and was happy for me to grow things that went over the fence so I grew a lot of lovely clematis etc and she enjoyed them. when he arrived , instead of simply asking me to now keep them all on my side he just cut right through the lot. At the time I had cancer and felt I would not see them grow again. He also had horrible dandelions growing from under his fence and locked gate into my garden. I could not reach the roots without going into his garden or asking his permission which I had no intention of doing. So planted nasturtiums and they overwhelmed the dandelion and killed it off. Then when I was ready I just pulled them up and put the plants I wanted to grow. So you could try a mix of some of the deadnettles which have a variety of leaf colours. You could also plant cyclamen coum, which have lovely different leaf colours besides the flowers, or you could just plant small bulbs such as scylla, iris reticulata, iris danfordii and minature daffodils. They could just be planted into the bed and will come up through the vinca. Hope that might give you some good ideas.
