Hi, I believe it is a China Doll Padermachera sinica, they are usually grown as a house plant due to their attractive foliage, planted in the garden they can grow quickly and get very large if not managed.

I had a few thoughts, probably too many. Why ASAP? Which way does it face? For eample does it get a lot of western exposure, lots of sun especially in the afternoon? What do you want shaded? Cubby, lawn for playing, oudoor entertaining, all of it? What is rubber wet pour? What's in the pots, are those the suggested murraya and box? Do you like them? How wide do you want the garden bed, or to put it another way, how much of the lawn area do you want to keep and how much does that leave around the edge? Is it now flat or do you need to have some kind of retaining wall again? Or will a gentle slop do the trick? Grass will struggle if there's too much shade. Supposedly some varieties tolerate it better. Even with that original hedge it doesn't look like there a serious lack of sun? It looks more like no decent soil and the area was maybe used for parking? It's a shame the hedge wasn't kept pruned. So when planning a replacement, you need to consider maintenance, otherwise eventually you'll have a similar problem, an overgrown hedge. I have to say the Murraya and box suggestion sounds very nice but formal, which means regular clipping. If you're not up for that much yardwork an informal hedge consisting of plants that do not naturally grow very large might be a better choice. And some trees for shade. But that's where even more planning is needed, to get the shade where needed without making the whole lawn too shaded to grow well, deciduous if you want more sunlight in winter, check for underground utilities and avoid anything with invasive roots. It sounds like a lot to think about but it's doable, it can be fixed. I came back to finish what I'd started writing and I see bigreader has posted lots of good advice. I agree, don't heap soil against the fence. Unless you are sure you are planting something really hardy it is worth improving the soil, and even with the plants labelled hardy and tolerates eveything I've found the same plant will grow better where the soil is better.

Update: I rang around a few co's that remove vinyl and they seem to think its vinyl too. Easy enough to remove, but I need to choose to replace it with more vinyl or twopak finish. I can see there are some good discussion threads here on it that topic too! I'm renting out the house for 3 years before probably selling, so I think I'll go for the cheaper option. Thanks very much for your help!

You can try and identify them using your phone, the iPhone has an identification mode, take a photo and you will see a look up plant option, press on the info. logo and it will give a description, or a plant identification app. Or take your photo to your local nursery.