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Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for how to deal with an unusual garden bed. I was all set to plant a nice shade garden with hosta, ferns, coral bells, Solomon's Seal, Bleeding Heart and Jacob's Ladder until I troweled a little today and discovered this bizarre construction installed by a previous owner of our house.
Here's how the bed is constructed:
LAYER 1: The entire bed is filled with medium sized rocks about six inches down.
LAYER 2: Layer of small rocks.
LAYER 3: On top of the small rock layer is a heavy black plastic mat.
LAYER 4: 1 to 2 inch layer of soil.
LAYER 5: (Ground level) Currently the bed is filled with happily growing Sedum sarmentosum interspersed with small beach stones.
I assume this was constructed to prevent weeds and reduce the work load for the previous gardener.
So now I'm thinking "rock garden". I don't really want to embark upon the massive project of digging out all the rocks. Is there anything that will grow in these shallow soil conditions other than Sedum sarmentosum ? I like the sedum very much, but I was hoping to supplement it with some flowering shade perennials, or something with interesting leaves, preferably native to the northeast of the U.S.A., or cultivated versions of northeast natives.
ZONE: 6B.
LIGHT: Partial shade.
SOIL: Well-drained to dry-ish. Seems drier than the area next to it. The area next to it (without rocks) is completely carpeted with spongy moss.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks! | 
