I bought a ranch-style house built in the '50s on a slab foundation. There are no shrubs, or anything else for that matter, growing near the house other than St. Augustine grass. I would like to plant a double row of shrubs along the front of the house, such as Indian Hawthorne and miniature Japanese Boxwood. How should I prepare the soil without building up the bedding to the point of covering up the exposed slab? Since it's an old house, there is not much slab above the dirt line and the yard is relatively flat.

I like the look of raised bedding bordered with natural stone bricks. I see this around the new construction houses in my neighborhood, but I have been told not to cover up the exposed slab due to detection of termite infestation. Should I leave the st. augustine grass and dig individual holes for the shrubs, or remove an entire strip of grass and replace the clay dirt near the front of the house with bedding dirt and create a shrub bed? My gut reaction is to leave the grass and dig the holes....the slab thing is the overriding concern.