digging up a lawn

[ness1301]

I am soon to be digging up my horrible lawn, if you can call it that. There are several ants nests in it. I want to get rid of the ants and then get soil to make an herbacious raised border. I would appreciate any input on how best to get rid of the ants forever (obviously I can use ant killer of some sort) and then whether to buy topsoil, manure, compost etc. for the raised bed. The bed is half in sun and half in constant shade.

[woofgang]

you can get rid of the ants easily enough without chemicals. You just dig it over well and leave it open to the elements. the ant will leave BUT they wont stay gone so the forever part is not possible. Buy decent topsoil.

[pdq1]

Make a point of searching for the queen ants and destroy as many as you can. They will try to evade capture and fly off so you need to be quick.