Euonymus ‘Emerald Gaiety’ and ‘Emerald Gold’ are 2 very common shrubs.  In many ways the two are similar in form.  You’ll often see both used as a low, mounded shrub either at the front of a garden or as an area groundcover.

Euonymus ‘Emerald Gaiety’ has the distinct capability to climb when planted next to a structure.

In this first picture is ‘Emerald Gaiety’ and further down the stone wall   is ‘Emerald Gold’.

The loose, straggley growth on top is typical and perhaps in a larger open space this “wildness” would be OK.  For example, used on a slope as a groundcover this “rambling” habit would be great.

However, in other gardens  you may want to prune for a neater look.  In this situation the Euonymus ‘Emerald Gaiety’ is overpowering the azalea behind it.  Let’s bring it back to scale, but keep that natural form.

How To Prune

As always, the best method of pruning any plant to maintain a “natural” appearance is to prune “selectively” – that is, by hand, single cuts with hand pruners.

Some of you are probably saying, “Are you kidding, I have too many to prune selectively”.  I hear you.  There’s a point of practicality where you have to make a judgement call.  In this case it’s not the end of the world if you shear the plants to make a monstrous task more doable.

These next 2 pictures show selective pruning on the Euonymus ‘Emerald Gold’.  I pruned the ‘Emerald Gaiety’ the same way.

Select the longest growth that extends beyond the main body of the plant and follow it down into the plant.  There, among the denser growth make your cut just above a leaf or lateral branch.

This last picture shows the Euonymus ‘Emerald Gaiety’ after it was pruned selectively. Notice how the “natural” form was maintained, but the plant is neater and more in scale with the azalea behind it.

Lily of the Valley is one of those ground covers you may not always think to use.  Yet it is one of the easiest to grow, can spread like crazy and needs hardly any care.  I know, you’re probably thinking “Why am I not using more of this plant?”.

In case you’re not familiar with Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis), here’s some plant profile information on this gem.

It is perennial and therefore dies down to the ground each year before winter.  Bonus! This makes leaf clean-up much easier than having to rake out a bed of pachysandra in the fall.

Lily of the Valley grows to about 8″ high (although there are some taller varieties) and spreads by rhizomes.  These underground stems grow laterally and then push up shoots (sometimes called “pips”) to form new leaves.

Because it’s a fairly aggressive spreader, I’m careful where I plant it.  For instance, don’t try to mix it into a bed with other perennials – it will easily over-run the others.  However, it does mix and coexist well with other woody plants like Rhododendron and Viburnum.  In fact, that’s a great look in a woodland setting.

Lily of the Valley prefers shade to partial shade, but it will tolerate sun, especially if given enough moisture.  It doesn’t seem to be too particular about soil type – another testament to its “warrior” status in my book.

It’s rated for Zones 2 – 7, but the further south you go the more shade you should give it.

The flowers show up in mid spring.  They are white, bell-shaped and have a nice scent.  One thing though: orange berries may appear in the fall.  These are poisonous so just keep that in mind if you have little kids nearby.

Lily of the Valley has beauty and brawn.  The classic use is as a ground cover under shade trees, but creatively it can be used around woody plants and also in the “nooks and crannies” of a shady rock garden.

One more great attribute of this plant is its deer resistance.  In my area this quality is almost becoming a must.

Let me know in the comments how you’ve used it and what experiences you’ve had with Lily of the Valley.

Back in June I posted an article that was to start a series on a project by East Coast Landscape.  Alan Goodell, one of the company owners, invited me to this special home on a lake. In the first article we saw how visitors were greeted at the entrance to the long winding drive.

This exceptionally long driveway took a tremendous amount of time and resources to build.  The layout had to wind through terrain that was not very accommodating.  As you’d expect in a woodland surrounding a lake, there were rock outcroppings, large trees and “radically changing” topography.  By combining the use of their heavy excavating equipment and landscape expertise, East Coast built a drive that harmonizes beautifully with the surroundings.

Utilizing the native boulders, they built up and retained areas where the grade had to be raised.  It was critical to make the drive descend in a gradual, consistent way.  Each boulder was placed to resemble the look of existing rock outcroppings so nothing would look man-made.

Plantings were selected and arranged to give the homeowner a “finished look”, but appear as an extension of the woodland.

Subtle, indirect lighting was also installed at points along the way.  Not only does the lighting guide you, but I’m sure it’s also comforting to have on a woodland drive like this.  Lions and tigers and bears…There is no lawn on this homesite, yet look how they introduce neutral expanses of space.  Swaths of different groundcovers are a low maintenance answer when you’re just looking for a neutral cover.  The woody trees and shrubs are chosen and placed carefully to just give enough “weight” where it’s needed.  Not overdone at all.  Notice the mix of textures and the balanced use of deciduous and evergreen.

We could go on and point out the specific design strategies (and I assure you careful thought went into every element), but in the end, “It just looks right”.  Everything just seems to belong, as if it happened naturally.

A native stone was used as natural curbing to further integrate the driveway as it approached the home. This is installed on a concrete footing with motared joints.  A “chip & tar” surface adds to the organic look and just sounds great as you’re pulling up.

Perennials and groundcovers play an important role in landscape design from many perspectives.  One of those functions is to act as “fillers” between the  young trees and shrubs.  This helps early on with plant spacing and the open spaces that might occur.

When we carefully arrange the young “woody plants” (i.e. trees & shrubs) for future growth, there is often generous amounts of open space remaining in the new garden.  Solution?  Bring on the perennials and groundcovers!

Although there are exceptions, generally speaking the perennials and groundcovers will not compete with the growing woody plants in terms of space.  The shrubs and trees will, for the most part, grow unfettered. This is a good thing.

If you start to see the woody plants overgrowing the nearby perennials and groundcovers, it’s not that big a task to “dig-out” those few fleshy neighbors to make more open space. You can move them to another area of the yard or give them away (a very cool & neighborly thing to do).

Be Proactive With Your Plant Arrangements

The landscape contractor had returned to the jobsite to add the perennials and groundcovers according to my plan. When I stopped by at the end of the day everything looked great except for one daylily that happened to be too close to the ‘Gold Coast’ juniper (see first pic at top).  So after a few wise-cracks (I’m used to it), one of the guys easily moved the daylily further away from the juniper by simply switching holes with one of the ajuga groundcovers.

Think about it though.  In one or two growing seasons the daylily would be twice the size and the juniper would be bigger too. Surely they’d be touching.  Also, I like the daylily by the stone-steps.  It helps to soften and meld the steps into the landscape.

The smaller plants are often the last aspect of a “complete” garden to be installed. There are many reasons why this happens:

• You may not want the presence of all the smaller plants and their typically close spacing to interfere with irrigation pipe or landscape lighting wire installation.
• You may make your specific plant variety selections and counts after the larger woody plants are installed. (I do this all the time.)
• The garden you’re working on was created some time ago and you’re now embellishing with perennials and groundcovers.
• The smaller plants were not available at the time, had to be ordered and now must be installed.
• Installing the smaller plants was deferred until a later date because of a seasonal concern.

In the photo above Ajuga (Carpet Bugle) is being planted as a groundcover in a 3 year old garden. There are 2 issues in this particular example to take note of: 1) This garden is sloped down to the patio edge. And 2) This garden already has a 3 inch layer of mulch.

When this garden was initially installed, care was taken to grade the sloped earth down to the patio and remove any excess soil. The result was a uniform, controlled grade held neatly by the mulch and the patio’s edge.  The goal now in planting these new smaller plants, is to preserve that neat, finished grade and not mix soil with the mulch while digging.

First thing I do is arrange & set the plants (in their pots) where they are to go. When setting plants on a slope use a trowel to make little divots to hold each plant in place. Now the mulch is pulled away around each plant to expose the bare soil beneath. Here, as each hole is being dug, the soil is not piled up on the sides of the holes, but removed and placed in a wheelbarrow.  The new plants are now set into each hole (sans the pot of course). In the wheelbarrow the removed soil is amended with some peat moss and Dry Roots granular organic fertilizer. Now the Ajuga can be backfilled and planted with just enough of the amended soil to keep the surrounding grade as level as it was before. Your ready to gently pull the mulch back around each plant, water, and admire your work.