What would you plant here?

[StanfordPines]

By a pond but very dry. South facing.
Generally I just let the grass grow long there but I’m thinking I might plant something. However it needs to be a something that gives good cover for wildlife. We get newts, some frogs and a lot of snakes.
Any ideas?

Maybe a little log pile in the corner. What about some native foxgloves, Achillea, and a few other wildflowers which you like?

Do you have any plants in the pond?

The pond has forget me nots and something else on it.

The rest of the garden is very wooded so I’ve got lots of foxgloves around the place.

Looks like you have some ground elder to clear first.
Then I would introduce some rocks and pebbles and plant an alpine garden.
Things like sedums, Aubrieta, Saxifraga, dianthus (for scent) and campanulas

As it's close to your seating area how about lavender?

There are carex that will sit in water and ones that are better on dry land. They give you the grass height and the ones we have as marginals are perfect for newts and frogs to hide around the base. Dragonflies sunbath on them too. There's another plant whose name escapes me that has tall flower spikes, again some species like their toes in water. Lythrum maybe (can't swear on the spelling). And irises are good but can take over a pond

I have lots of ground elder. I let it do it’s thing on one side of the pond because I can’t get to it and the snakes like it.

The problem if you leave the ground elder is that it will smother anything you plant there. If you want to keep it and try to control it all you can do is not let it flower and seed but it will still spread via the under ground rhizomes.

I like eating ground elder instead of spinach in Alfredo sauce. I don't have any in my garden so I'm unsure whether I would leave it or not.

I might plant herbs in an enclosed, dry spot. Thyme especially. Norfolk herbs have lovely stuff.

@Proudboomer

The problem if you leave the ground elder is that it will smother anything you plant there. If you want to keep it and try to control it all you can do is not let it flower and seed but it will still spread via the under ground rhizomes.

I literally can’t get to one side of the pond to get to it. I keep it in check on just that one side though. Also the people with the garden over the fence never go in their garden so no matter what I did it would come back.

Wild/alpine strawberries - I think they'll cope with "quite dry", and baby frogs love the habitat.

Hardy Geraniums seem to win the fight with ground elder. I have some coming in under their Leyllandi hedge. I’ve planted the spreading hardy geranium Wargrave along my side and it has reduced the ground elder.

A few large stones and logs would make a difference, I'd go for ornamental grasses, hostas, bergenia, brunnera would probably work. Also something like a cotoneaster horizontalis would give good cover.