August 26, 2026
“I’m not sure exactly why I thought [a] rock garden was the way to go,” mused Anne Smith, except, “I had the beginnings of one at my previous house.” Or maybe the name of her city fated it. In any case, Anne converted her front yard in Boulder, Colorado, into an expansive rock garden 30 years ago, when rock gardening was taking off across the state. Today it’s a beautiful mounded garden with a tumble of pink, lichen-speckled boulders; textural dwarf conifers; rugged troughs of delicate alpine plants; starburst-leaved yuccas; and colorful swaths of low flowering perennials.
I toured Anne’s garden during the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days in late June, and it jump-started some rock garden dreams of my own. Of course, I’m in a much-smaller space, so maybe it’ll mostly be in troughs, but Anne’s garden shows how to do that too. Let’s explore!
Rock garden front yard
Anne brought in two dump trucks of soil and mounded it herself using a wheelbarrow. She also had 30 tons of sandstone and granite delivered and directed the placement of the biggest boulders. Later, she and husband Rolando brought in smaller rocks themselves. The design of the garden was all done by Anne, who’s an atmospheric researcher in her day job.
‘Saint Mary’s Broom’ creeping blue spruce is a beauty with steel-blue foliage and a low, spreading habit. I’m putting this one on my list of plants to try.
Stork’s bill (Erodium) spreads a purple-and-green skirt around a pebbled trough of aeonium and other small succulents.
Leading the eye to the front steps, a small pine and conical dwarf Alberta spruce add evergreen texture and height.
Santolina ‘Lemon Fizz’ and red penstemon provide seasonal color.
As do lamb’s ears, gaura, and lavender
Lamb’s ears in bloom
Lavender and gaura
Pretty from all sides, especially combined with strappy yucca leaves
Ice plant showing off starry pink flowers
As you walk up the driveway, two stone stairs offer a choice: a chunky-stone climb to the front door, or a shallow traverse into the garden.
The boulder-flanked stair to the door is distinctively Coloradan. I like the airy, wrought-iron handrail too.
Nearby, three hypertufa troughs are filled with alpines, sempervivums, sedums, and dwarf conifers. The trough plantings “evolve with time since mortality is considerable,” Anne says.
She purchased some of her troughs from Domenique Turnbull. Others she made herself.
Across the rocky, mounded garden, the neighbor’s shingled gray-green siding makes an attractive backdrop.
A bowl planter on a flat rock provides a reason to stop and look.
What a beautiful garden that evokes the nearby mountains. I imagine maintenance is a little challenging amid the rocky terrain, though. I wish I’d thought to ask Anne how she does it without twisting an ankle.
Side garden
In the side yard’s narrow, canyon-like space, Anne grows potted tropicals and other plants that appreciate more water, like daylilies and clematis.
It’s a fun transitional space between two waterwise gardens.
Pots of succulents are grouped for effect.
The path leads to a deck shaded by a large tree, where more pots are clustered.
But first, those daylilies…
…and a pause to take in Anne’s bromeliad and succulent containers. In winter, she brings all these indoors. “They are wintered over in my small greenhouse (sunny and well-watered) and in one of the other rooms where I keep the temperature as low as I can,” she says.
Back garden
From the deck, you look out on a gorgeous view of Boulder Mountain Park. Pines frame a view of a distant peak; beneath them, grasses soften the scene. A collection of troughs lines a split-rail fence and brackets a path. The backyard may be small, but it feels large thanks to that borrowed view.
The near view is excellent too thanks to Anne’s trough collection.
A hollowed rock filled with water reflects a bit of the sky.
Troughs are crammed tightly on each side of the path, filled with pretty little alpine plants. Along the fence Yucca x schottii adds the drama of sword-like leaves. The trunking yucca at right is Yucca thompsoniana.
Here’s the long view. In her tour description, Anne said the “backyard planted area, which is xeric and watered no more than once or twice a year [my emphasis], is filled with yuccas, agaves and eremurus, along with seasonal blooming plants.”
Under the Thompson’s yucca, prickly thrift (Acantholimon) makes a lumpy, silvery groundcover.
Cold-hardy succulents like sempervivum make the cutest little trough plants.
This one was flowering.
Anne grows plenty of non-hardy succulents too, like cold-tender agaves…
…and dyckias. These she brings indoors in winter.
Look at all these pots!
In a cold-winter climate like Colorado’s, having this many tender plants requires real commitment. But what a show they put on in summer.
Another handsome agave
Coral honeysuckle vine (Lonicera sempervirens) is a non-fragrant but non-invasive honeysuckle, and hummingbirds love it. I enjoy seeing old favorites — especially native plants from Texas — growing in Colorado.
Every deck and patio in the backyard offers Anne an opportunity to display her succulent/tropical collection. It’s impressive!
What a beautiful rock garden and trough garden in a beautiful setting. Thanks for the tour, Anne!
Up next: A Boulder garden with creative garden rooms and owners who enjoy making a new garden each year. To see my recap of the Denver Open Days Tour in June, click here.
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