Ajuga and vinca prefer some shade. If you have blazing sun all day, try (Hedera)English, Persian, or Algerian Ivy (many varieties of leaf shape and color)for evergreen cover and roots that hold the soil, and plant daffodils underneath it for flowers. Other evergreen groundcovers could be Carolina Jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens)& Lady Banks Rose, creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia), spreading juniper, wintercreeper eunymous (in several leaf colors), cotoneaster, . If it doesn't have to be evergreen: Boston Ivy & Virginia creeper(Parthenocissus), gold flame honeysuckle, akebia, cross vine(Bignonia), and there are some carefree perennials for that environment: purple cone flowers (Echinacea), black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia) day lilies, yarrow, four-o-clock, goldenrod, and tall ornamental grasses. A rocky, sunny hillside would be a great place for Mediterranean herbs like rosemary, lavender, thyme, oregano, marjoram, chives, savory, sage, fennel, the artemesias,etc. They don't need good soil; just sun and good drainage, which your rocks and slope provide.

Gene, they are beautiful aren't they? Be vigilant in your search in the foliage for bagworms which did in several of mine so they needed replacing. Some years they are really bad other years they're gone. You can pull off the tiny twig 'bags' and stomp on them but the silk that attaches it to the arborvitae is tightly wound around the twig. If it's on an important branching area you can try to scissor it off other wise expect some later twig death and clip those parts off. Spraying to kill the eggs laid by the moth is probably the best preventative to prevent the larval damage that occurs before you even see a suspended bag on a twig.

In the South, Semi-dwarf fruiting rootstock is more common especially locally. You can prune fruit to whatever size you like to keep canopy low and small but you also need to ensure then that you prune to a more open canopy as fruit cut low tends to make dense foliage (when then causes low fruiting due to shade). You are late for fruit planting now. Most nurseries have put their fruit stock into dormancy through cold storage. I like Johnsons, there is also Lawson's Applies, for bare root you can try Isons but I've been none too thrilled with them. Figs on a slope would work fine. You can probably find a fig that will do well at a local flea market or store. I do not recommend buying fruit from a "big box" store because it is not necessarily grown on root stock for the South and you don't always know if it's a good cultivar for your location. Johnson's has a good website, and I suggest searching for the Atlanta Fruits yahoo group and joining to ask questions. Loads of great advice there. Far more knowledgeable than I am! Also good to consider are pomegranates and pineapple guava. They don't get to giant.

Technically, we are in the subtropics, not a temperate zone. And we really don't get four distinct seasons... more like two: a long summer, and then what I like to call yo-yo weather the rest of the year. Summer weather starts up mid-to-late-May and runs till mid-to-late-September. We may have hot weather in October, but it isn't the stultifying heat of summer. We do get freezes each year; some years we get snow, but it is flat here in the coastal plain, so the danger of steep landscapes in snow isn't a worry here. Not-summer weather can range from upper-twenties (Fahrenheit) to temps in the seventies and eighties. It is rare for us to have freezing temps for more than a few hours, though, so the freeze-and-thaw cycle that can wreak havoc with areas in zones 6 & 7 aren't usually a problem here. We've had two freeze warnings in recent weeks, but still no freezes. I know, because I still have many coleus plants in the yard, and though they look pretty tatty at this point, they are still alive, and a few are still blooming and providing nectar to their biggest fans, the bees. That will end once we actually get temps below freezing. They will re-seed, though- I have little use for annuals that don't. Roses here don't actually need winter protection, but I have toyed with the idea of moving my two Hybrid Chinas to a colder part of the yard to see if that might encourage spring blooms, but it's hard to determine where those colder zones might be; the ground is quite flat, and we have trees providing wind protection throughout the yard. Last winter was unusually warm, so it remains to be seen if what passes for normal winter weather will provide sufficient winter chill for those two, and my other once-blooming roses. As for autumn color, there are a few Japanese Maples in the neighborhood, that look quite pretty with their yellow leaves. We don't have a hickory, but our pecan tree (related to hickory) does a dismal job of providing any color-the leaves turn brown and fall right off. We do have a couple of gumball trees (Liquidambar styraciflua) in the wilder area beyond the back fence, and they have yellow leaves in fall and early winter. I know folks like to complain about the spiky seeds, but they are such a benefit to wildlife, and the seedballs are not much of a nuisance out where our trees are. Also in the back area there are some wild grapes, at least two types of Smilax, Virginia Creeper and Peppervine that provide fruit in the fall and winter. I do try to keep those plants from seeding in the yard itself. In the same area, there are a few invasives that I try to do battle with despite lack of easy access: privet (we call it disgustrum), Japanese honeysuckle and Russian olive. These plants may be better-behaved elsewhere, but are not wanted here. Virginia