Here are some pics of my rock garden this year, although the rocks have been engulfed by the plants! This is a sloped bed above a stone wall along the street in my front yard, and the soil is sandy and doesn't retain water. I have a lot of sedum varieties in this bed, as well as a hodgepodge of other plants - penstemon, salvia, artemisia, mint, hyssop, Russian sage, catmint, lavender. I also put a few marigolds in every year along one end, which is mostly behind the camera in these pics. Chipmunks have tunnels along the stone wall.

Everyone has there own kind of rock garden and yours is grand! I too, mix non-traditional with the traditional. You can always remove them if you don't like them.

It may be difficult to contain the False spirea; you'll want to keep a watch on it.

I love it! I agree about the false spirea.

I love your regular vs. rock garden type area, my old garden was like that! I love the incorporation of more "regular gardeny" plants with the "rock garden" plaants!!!!

Welcome to the site!

Looks great Bird!

Leftwood said: It may be difficult to contain the False spirea; you'll want to keep a watch on it.

I planted the ash leaf spirea ('Sem') over 10 years ago, so I don't think it has any surprises left for me. It does send out runners often but pretty easy to remove them. It is a tough shrub, which I needed to survive in this tough location. It's next to a purple smoke bush and the color combo is nice.

I believe that Sem is a particular variety that is naturally more contained, and doesn't spread as quickly. But still keep a watch. Sometimes, all of a sudden, things can change.

Very beautiful garden! Your neighbors are lucky.

Your garden is lovely would a real pleasure to view it every day.

It's a wonderful looking rock garden!