Oh! So that's what I've got here in north Georgia! The past 2 years they've been hibernating inside the metal track part of one of my windows and a couple of dozen usually find their way inside. And the other week one landed on me outside and I tried to gently move it off to a plant and that little stinker BIT me! I'd never known of ladybugs biting anyone and it was certainly the 1st time it happened to me! It HURT too! I had to get out the Benadryl spray to make it stop stinging. So is there a way to tell the difference between this biter and the ones we mean when we say "ladybugs"? Thanks!

Have you had a greater amount of rain lately or is this a low level in your yard so it is always wet? Ideally the soil will not touch the bottoms of the fence boards as it will cause them to rot. So I'd recommend making the flower bed wider and sloping the soil up from the fence ensuring soil is not touching the boards. You could mound the bed up from the fence then back down to the lawn level. Two feet width is narrow for a flower/vegetable bed and yours looks to be less than that. I would mix the native clay soil with the purchased garden soil. Clay soil can have nutrients that the purchased soil may not have and will also help with moisture retention. If you mix a few inches of the clay soil with the new soil it should give you a deep enough bed for most plants. Any grass you dig out can be composted in a corner of your yard. You can pile it up with the chunks upside down and it will rot and become good soil.

If your area AHJ required a 'seepage bed' when your house was built, you may encounter the heavy hand of the city/county if they ever discover that you are no longer compliant, especially if they see deliberate modifications. Rain Gardens, by another name, are being stipulated in areas where the percentage of ground surface being built upon exceeds a certain limit. When this happens, rain water does not have enough area to naturally adequately seep into the ground before it runs off excessively into the storm drains and ditches causing, amoung other problems, overworked public sanitation systems, erosion and pollution of streams, rivers and the inadequate replenishment of the sub-surface water table. I hope you would prefer to have the underlying problem with your seepage pit corrected.

For all those who post: "How much will it cost" - that is a red flag - because it shows you don't have an idea of the complexity, and nobody knows without being there.. The first thing the contractor will ask you is "what is your budget?" Everyone has a number, and they don't want to spend their time making estimates for projects that will never be done. I hope I got you thinking about how much you want to spend - when you call a contractor, you will be prepared with a number. When you get an estimate, I'd like to know what it is.