I need serious help on figuring out garden plan for new yard

[floppydee]

I will try to keep this short. I have for many years raised many herbs and veggies in strictly containers, due to apartment living. My dear grandmother, left me her home when she recently went into a nursing home and I now have a yard! I live in NY which I believe is zone 5-6?
So since I have room...here are my problems:

I really don't care for flowers, or rather in gardens, and well she had/has them planted ALL OVER!! They are obviously perrenials, because I have tulips growing under my picnic table now! Looks like an old bush of some sort, and maybe some black eyed suzies all covering the front yard.
She also had a raised bed veggie/herb garden that was never tended to. I was pulling out 2 foot long carrots last year for her!!!

my basic problem is is it possible to dig up all the tulips and old bushes and flowers, and be able to plant a veggie garden safely over that same area??
We have to take down her raised bed, it is held up with metal stakes and rotting wood (hazard for my son). There is ALOT of soil/dirt...can I use this for the new garden? Like I said it was FILLED with herbs and veggies last summer that were never picked at all.

I am scared that we won't be able to get rid of all the perrenials and they will come through where I want veggies only! I am looking into the Square Foot Gardening, but if I can use all that soil from her existing old bed, then this might be the easiest way to go

BTW I was told by a neighbor, the soil is bad here. I am not sure what she really meant by it...just adding that in for your opinions.

Thanks for any help!!

[rainbowgardener]

"my basic problem is is it possible to dig up all the tulips and old bushes and flowers, and be able to plant a veggie garden safely over that same area??
We have to take down her raised bed, it is held up with metal stakes and rotting wood (hazard for my son). There is ALOT of soil/dirt...can I use this for the new garden? Like I said it was FILLED with herbs and veggies last summer that were never picked at all.

I am scared that we won't be able to get rid of all the perrenials and they will come through where I want veggies only! I am looking into the Square Foot Gardening, but if I can use all that soil from her existing old bed, then this might be the easiest way to go "

Sure, if it is your place now and you don't want her flowers dig them up and re-use the soil. You probably want to amend it with some compost, composted manure, other organic material (like leaves, grass clippings, etc), especially if it's "bad soil" or just because it may have gotten kind of depleted over the years. If flowers that you don't want continue to come up, just pull them-- I'm not sure why that's so fearsome!

But I would suggest starting small the first year. Figure out where you want your veggie garden to be and clear the flowers out of that and leave the rest for awhile. You may discover you like them! Anyway tulips and black-eyed susies and shrubbery are a lot better than bare dirt if you clear more than you can really take care of as a veggie garden.