Pebble & flowerbed front garden

petejmk

Wondering can somebody help. We're hoping to get our front garden sorted in the next few weeks and new to gardening. At the moment it's just an uneven clay surface of about 12 sq m, rectangular in shape We'd like to replace this with two beds either side and to the front, pebbles lining those beds with a square bed right in the centre of the garden.
From what I've read online am I right in saying we need a compacted layer of 804 hardcore to level the garden, over which we should lay a weed preventing membrane which allows for drainage, then put in dividers to separate the beds and pebbles before laying the pebbles and putting in top soil in the beds.
Sorry if that sounds confusing. We keep second guessing ourselves and don't want to make a meal of it. Thanks.

looksee

I have a pebble area with hardcore and no membrane and it is much more satisfactory than an area which had membrane and no hardcore. I don't think you need both. You cannot avoid getting a few small weeds because they sprout in the gravel, but they are easily disposed of.