Digging up parts of lawn

Hi guys, have posted a few other topics on here as I am trying to do up our new garden. I have attached a picture here. What I am looking to do is either side of the path I want to have a small flower bed that runs along the path. To the right of the path there was stones which I have dug up, I was originally going to lay some better type of stone but thought it might look nice to have soil either side.

So the first question is, for the left side where there is grass, how am I best to remove the grass (about a foots worth) and what do I add to fill the gap? Compost or topsoil?

The second questions is for the left side, like I said it was mostly stones, I have removed most of them and there is not much soil, it seems mostly clay and sand, should I remove that a little more and add more of the compost or top soil? How far should I dig?

Many thanks

 

A few things to consider.

On the left, a bed of only a foot wide will restrict what you can grow. You do not want to plant anything too close to the path as it will overgrow the path and be a nuisance when it has been raining. I would go for two foot wide bed and plant 9-12 inches away from the path. Roughly a plant will grow as wide as it will be tall. Exception will be something like Lobelia that is low growing and needs planting annually. Or campanula, similarly low growing but spreads, is easily controlled and is a perennial. These can be grown under taller plants.

To remove the grass use a spade and undercut the grass as if you were removing it as turf (i.e. about 1 inch thick slice). Firstly cut vertically with the spade along what will be the new grass edge (use a tight string line to get a straight and parallel edge). Then section the grass to be removed into roughly foot squares so that you can undercut and remove a foot square at a time. If you have space lay this turf upside down in a pile and in about 6 months you will have some fine loam to go back on the garden. If you have any large bare patches that need repairing you could lay this turf in as a patch. Or bury the turf on the right of the path - see below.

Once the grass is gone dig the soil over and add some compost as an improver. Unless this is very poor soil or subsoil you may not need to bring in any soil for this bed. You will want the bed to be a little below the level of the grass and path.

On the right firstly work out where the damp proof course is in the brick wall. Make sure that whatever you do nothing (soil/stones) comes above that line. I am assuming the soil there is poor. If you want to plant there then you will need to dig out about a foot to 15 inches deep. You can lay the turf in the bottom of this trench and backfill with topsoil/compost mixture.