Ground cover for exposed bank

We're gardening newbies but have spent the past six months trying to begin the process of reclaiming the garden of our new house. Its been really neglected for a long time. We got around 30 twenty + foot high leylandii cut down and 100 small bare root portuguese laurel planted instead in March. This really struggled to establish due to crazy winds/rain on the hill we live on but FairyGirl and others were very helpful and while we've lost a few, it's doing okay now. We couldn't get mulch for ages due to the lockdown and in that time it poured rain for about two months solid, the weeds went bananas and we ended up with 2-3 foot high nettles/thistles/god knows what invading the entire area around the hedges. We are coming to the end of hand weeding approx 70m x 2m length of ground to get rid of that now and have laid down cardboard and a load of bark to try calm things down a bit. Next on the list is the bank behind the hedging at the front and the back garden. At the moment this is mostly bracken, thistles and brambles. The local foxgloves managed to seed their way along it this summer during the endless rain but we're not keen on them due to having two very small and curious kids. We don't have very much money but were wondering if anything cheap, quick and cheerful might work well to start the process of ground cover even at this late stage in the year once we've cleared the weeds? I have a load of aubretia seeds but know it's probably too late for that. The soil is loamy, slightly acidic but a bit dry and thin due to being a slope and we get fierce winds during the winter. Any suggestions greatly appreciated!