Beginner Gardening: Options for replacing lawn/weeds with wanted plants, 1 by nunasdream

nunasdream wrote:
Hi there,

As you can see I have a small bit of land at the back of my house which has grown out of control. I want to get rid of the weeds here and replace it with flowers but I am not sure the best way about it. As you can see there's shrubs around the outside which I can't kill so I am a bit iffy about weed killer. If I were to dig the plants up and leave them, will it be sufficient to let me grow things in it?

Also, if i did dig it up, can i leave the left over dirt and dead plants or should I get rid of them?

The area is probably 3 metres by 3.5 metres