What to plant out on/next to a large mound running up a slope next to a driveway?

(I used to want to do a whole permaculture design for my property....the last few years my mind has been completely scattered as to what to do about pretty much everything really, so I haven't done it, & I don't know if I will be in the right headspace anytime soon to do one either!  I need small manageable projects these days that don't seem too big)

I have a reasonably gentle slope (not too taxing to walk up, unless, perhaps, you have chronic fatigue like me! - sorry don't know the exact slope) with a gravel driveway running basically south-north, and a large (almost 6.5 feet wide on top) mound next to it on the east side (southern hemisphere).  It's roughly 5 m from the side of the driveway to the other side of the mound.  This area gets late shade, more so in winter & near the bottom of the hill.
Yearly rainfall is > 39 inches/year but with at least a couple dry months in summer.  Soil's got clay, not too much. Well draining.  Sun is quite hot in summer & some trees struggle with it (at least when young in pots!)  

I'm trying to think of appropriate trees or shrubs to plant here, either on the mound or slightly off on the side away from the driveway.  Or lower things that would spread well on the mound but aren't going to be a hassle spreading into the pasture where I don't want it.  
Would weeping willows planted 5m away from the gravel driveway cause any root issues in 20 or more years time?!  Wouldn't mind putting a couple of those near the bottom of the slope, where the mound curves around and there may be a damp spot in winter.  It's unlikely there will be any irrigation other than the occasional hand watering.  
For the most part I probably want to stick to 5m or lower so the other side of the driveway isn't shaded too long in the morning, as that also gets shade in the afternoon....

I am sorry you have not gotten any replies.

I am not familiar with Australia to be able to name plants.

Why not do a flower garden?  And maybe an ornamental shrub or two?

Hi -
That does sound challenging. It sounds like you need plants that are fine with heat and need to be drought tolerant.
I live in a very different climate than you do, and am not familiar with planting in your area, so I personally can't make recommendations. I'm doubtful about weeping willows though. They are beautiful, but they also need an incredible amount of water and are water seekers. I wouldn't put them anywhere a structure, especially a home.
There are lots of ways to do research though:
  Library books.
  Nursery websites that have really good filters so you can select what you are looking for as far as height, sun, drought tolerance, soil, growing zones, etc. You may not buy from them but they may give you some ideas of what would be good for you.
  Research papers at .edu sites.
  You can try visiting local nurseries, but you have to be SO sure the person you are dealing with knows what they are talking about!
  Look at what your neighbors are growing, or - maybe even more fun - go to arboreutums or botanical gardens near you.
And a caution on drought tolerance. Even if you buy plants that are very well suited to what you need them to do, they will probably need to be watered for a few years before they are well established. We get no rain from June to September and sometimes longer. Hand watering my new babies has been instrumental in their success.
I wish you the best of luck and hope you find plants to put there that you enjoy. I've struggled with chronic fatigue myself. I wish you the best in dealing with that too. One step at a time. :)

I'd do a native/perennial/pollinator/wildlife garden (local groups often have lists of plants that would do well there or help pollinators. On the edge of the slope, you may want to plant some things to control erosion. If the soil dries out, you may want to consider also adding in some plants for chop and drop to add mulch/improve the soil over time. It could be a cool biodiversity hotspot on your property. If you have a few favorite wild animals, perhaps plant something they could eat. For example, my childhood home had a berry bush out front that the deer loved and dad would always watch them from his office window.

Hi Jonie,
I hear you about small projects. I will back up several things that  Jen said, such as visiting an arboretum or someone with local knowledge, and also not biting off more than you can manage. I would also consider strongly adding edible trees and shrubs to the mix. You could easily create a micro food forest. Some of the plants Geoff Lawton mentions in this video, could be helpful. He's in Australia, but Australia's a big place, so you ecosystem could still be quite different. https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/establishing-a-food-forest-the-permaculture-way/

1. You've mentioned the width at the top, but not the length. If it's long, I would consider planting sections at a time, so the hand watering doesn't become overwhelming?

2. How long has this mound been there? Dirt in my ecosystem (heavy winter rain when plants are "resting"), tends to settle over time, which could affect planting on the top.

Even if it takes you multiple years, planting a section at a time, I can imagine it being quite lovely when it's done.

Thanks for replying anne, jen, lauren & jay - I hadn't gotten any notification that anyone had replied!
I guess really what I'm looking for is suggestions of any reasonably hardy groundcovers & up to 5m high plants, particularly those that are easy to grow from cuttings or are very successful being direct seeded.  
The mound I'm talking about is actually 113m long so yeah a fair space to plant out & money is definitely an issue.

Anne - I wouldn't take the fact that I'm in Australia much into consideration, just happy to hear whatever suggestions might come to your mind!  Plenty of european & north american species do well here.  We generally don't have extremes of temperature either way, although we are considered cold by Australian standards in Tasmania we are actually in the milder part of the island.  (Quite different from where Geoff Lawton is though Jay!  But I shall look at the video you mention.  One thing I should probably plant for starters at least is tagasaste as it does great here, is fast to establish & will create some shelter for anything else planted)
Jen - Well, perhaps I overstated things a bit.  Plants, once you get them in the ground (and yes do some initial watering, at least in summer), mostly seem to thrive.  It's just being in pots, I think, when they're so challenged, when you get a warm, windy day (it does get fairly windy here, though less so on the mound I'm talking about as it is near the lowest part of the property and most of it is sheltered from the west, where the predominant winds come from, with a thick Cypress wind shelter on our neighbours boundary).  We don't have many, sometimes any, days at or over 30C/86 F even in summer and we're near the ocean.  
Lauren - I know it's ideal to do as much local species as you can, however the information on local plants in terms of edibility/medicinal qualities is very scant.  I have tried looking into it.  The indigenous people here were almost entirely wiped out very early on in the European settlement of the area so that knowledge is hard to come by.  We do know of a lot of edible plants but they are generally not things that would provide much of your food, certainly meat/seafood must have been the predominant food source here (plants provide mostly just a bit of flavouring & Vit C), and many are slow growing.  Also many are quite flammable, which I don't find desirable!!  So while I certainly don't rule out natives I definitely want to look further afield than native species.
Our property is intended to be wallaby proofed, also, for most of it (they will be able to enter the riparian area & dam), as they would make grazing other animals pretty difficult if they weren't excluded as they can quickly reach plague proportions and eat the grass very short (of course that could be considered a resource too, however that is illegal...).  

I’m in Tasmania with clay soil, on an east-facing slope that gets afternoon sun blocked in winter.

For anywhere where winter sun is blocked, choosing trees that are dormant in winter will help.

Apples, pears, cherries on dwarfing rootstocks would probably do fine and wouldn’t grow too tall, but might need some irrigation in the first year or two while their roots are getting established. Drip irrigation would be an easy way to do this.

Blueberries and other berries grow beautifully here. Tagasaste is a useful nitrogen fixing shrub that can be planted next to fruit trees.

A documentary called “The Permaculture Orchard” talks about the NAP system - this is a useful thing to think of when you want to incorporate permaculture ideas into your plantings but don’t want to do a full design, it involves planting different trees next to each other, so that there are the benefits of polyculture and nitrogen-fixing. The pattern is N (nitrogen fixing tree e.g. tagasaste or willow) A (apple) and P (pear, plum, cherry, elder, anything that isn’t an apple), and the pattern just keeps repeating, so that every tree has a nitrogen fixing tree on one side of it, and a tree that isn’t the same as it on the other side. The spacing of the trees depends on whether they are dwarfing trees or not.

Underneath the trees, you can put whatever flowers and herbs you might like. Yarrow and clover make excellent ground cover. For anything else, you can just get a bunch of seeds, throw them around and see what takes off - borage, chamomile, nigella, oregano, dandelion, chicory and other plants readily self-seed here. Comfrey is really good to grow from root cuttings.

Woodbridge Fruit Trees are a good local place for dwarf fruit trees and information about how to grow fruit.

The Lost Seed have recently moved back to Tas, and sell scions of heritage fruit trees, so if you want to learn grafting, that is a cheap way to get some nice varieties of fruit.

Starting trees from seeds would be the cheapest way - feel free to just throw your fruit pips and seeds around the place and some of them might grow.

I’m not sure about willow roots. A park near me has old willows quite close to the gravel path and there doesn’t seem to be an issue with the roots causing trouble.

Something else that might help:

Go to https://maps.thelist.tas.gov.au/, enter your address, and click on 'layers' on the right hand side, click 'add layer' then 'farming', then there are a list of crops to choose from - you can click on any crop, and if your address is one covered by this map, it will let you know what the limitations are for that crop, and if you might want to adjust the pH or pick a different crop.