Planting in dry shady area beneath trees

In the corner of the garden, there’s an apple tree, a plum tree to the right, and a native hawthorn and blackthorn hedge behind the fence ruining left to right. This area where there’s no grass only gets early morning sun in the summer, during the day the fence on the left shades it. The grass never really does well here and I was considering planting some plants around the tree to mask it.

Any suggestions? The soil up there is bone dry. Not sure if it’s from the trees but currently it’s all cracked and gets little rain on it. Though I can cut back the hawthorn to let more on it. Would hostas survive?