digging up shrubs

[GinAndSlimlinePlease]

My new-ish garden has some shrubs in it. They were horrendously overgrown when we moved in, and we cut them right back.

I've now planned out my garden and I'm hoping to replace the shrubs with and Acer and then lots of country garden flowers. I've no idea what the shrubs actually are, but they are not structurally interesting nor are they lovely in any way. it's only a small garden, mostly paved. I dug out some of the paving so the bed would be 1m deep. Even so, 4 closely packed random shrubs are not good.

I was hoping to be able to dig them out. Is that likely to be possible? !

Yes, you'll definitely be able to dig them out, even if it means cutting through some of the roots and leaving them in the ground. Are you hoping to re-use them somewhere else? Or give them away? If not, there's no problem getting them out.

Once that's done, you'll probably need to replace the missing soil.

Country garden flowers only have shallow roots, so they'll be in the new soil. The new Acer will obviously develop deeper roots, eventually, but should be able to find enough space to do this.