I love lily-of-the-valley and have it in a couple spots. It gets pretty scrappy looking about mid August. Any ideas on what I might be able to companion plant to hide the late season drabs? And how do you keep your lilies from getting so crowded - just spend time pulling pips? Mine get so dense they seem to be fighting each other.

I must have the wimpiest LOV on earth. I hear this story of aggressive LOV. I have a little patches all over that has gone no where for years.

That said.... in my shade garden the hostas, ferns, and other shade plants when they grow they are covered.

My other go to plants to cover are deciduous bushes, daylilies.

Really I use hostas a lot even in my sun gardens.

Here is an example of a sun garden that I have some of the LOV. There is a fairy rose bush, tansy, Coral Bells, geranium, and Hosta.

I'd suggest perennial geraniums, maybe a few hardy begonias.

In my quest to add native plants whenever possible, I think I will go with deer fern. The great thing is I have these growing naturally in my back woodlot, so no expense. I think I'll dig out some space in the LOV and pop in a fern now and again. Hopefully they will rise above the tattered late summer foliage of the LOV. I also bought some native wild strawberries today to place in front of the LOV where this particular bed gets more sun (there is a natural line the LOV doesn't seem to cross). From the looks of the strawberries (lots of looong runners) they should fill in pretty quickly. If and when I ever figure out where Windows 10 stores my photos, I'll post some pics. At the moment, they are just going into the black hole somewhere.

OMG be careful with strawberries----they will fill in all right.

I have had good luck with Turtle Heads mixed in with LOV.