What plant are you putting in? If it has a fairly shallow root system it should be just fine. New Dawn is very vigorous and it shouldn't be bothered at all. The only problem I can see is that ND grows so large it may dwarf the other plant completely.

Hi Seil: Thanks a lot for the reply. Well, for one thing I want a sandy space for planting my beebalm and asters where they won't get drunk on my rose soil and fall over. It's my only available sunny spot. But at the side I also wanted a little rock niche to experiment with some very small plants, such as the gentians. Not having a clue what I was doing, I bought a trumpet gentian before finding out how hard they are to grow and get to flower. Once I found out, I figured I could either put it in the compost now and save myself the trouble, or else I have to make a home for it and pray to the saints of Beginner's Luck. There is only one place on my property for it, and that's at the foot of New Dawn's growing area, which is slightly sloping. I also would like to try other gentians that are easier to grow in the future, and there may be some pH differentials needed between New Dawn and the gentians. So I'd like to put some slate vertically in the ground between the rose soil and the sandy soil, and I'll be putting lots of gravelly soil at the bottom of the sandy part for good drainage. Also lift up the soil level of the lower half of the space so that New Dawn's water no longer flows down and saturates the bottom. I erred when I said there were 3-1/2 ft open space in front of where ND is planted. When I took out the rocks around the bed, there are actually 4-1/2 ft, and I'd like to cut that down to 2-1/2 to 3 ft from ND, which has considerable open space in other directions. Any further advice would be much appreciated.