KyleJones

Thanks both for your help, really appreciate it. Feel ready to tackle this now, wish me luck haha.

I was thinking of dumping all the soil into the back portion of the garden for now and then possibly when the time comes to tackle that part of the garden I could create a raised section. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it haha.

I think this is the option I will take for now. I’ll dig the majority flat and then create the slope back to the boundary. Potential to revisit in the future and maybe look at retaining walls, but a bit out of our budget at the moment. Thanks all for your help.

Thanks for that Kelvin. Hopefully I’ll be ok then as the garden doesn’t seem to hold much water at all. With my idea of leaving the bank to the right hand side would that negate the need for a retaining wall then? Many thanks

Hi Kelvin, you’ll have to excuse my complete lack of knowledge, my diy skills haven’t ventured outdoors yet🤣 what do you mean when you say free draining? Our garden doesn’t get very wet at all at the moment even with any torrential rain so I’m guessing it drains pretty well naturally. Just wondered if the lowest point may be prone to puddling if it’s encased by banks? Many thanks

Hi Joe. Do you foresee any issues with laying some new turf at the lowest flattened area with regards to drainage? Would I need to look at installing some drainage solutions and what would you recommend if so? Many thanks

Thanks again for your replies both. In response to your question of why Kelvin the answer is yes, to make it more usable. We have 2 young children so would love to flatten a large enough area to get some garden play sets, paddling pools, tables and chairs. It wouldn’t be as much of an issue if it was just me and my partner but would like the flat area for the children. I think flattening the majority and leaving the bank to the highest point sounds like my best bet at the moment. Access for a mini digger is ok so that will take a lot of the effort out of removing the soil.

Hi Kelvin, thanks for the reply. Do you think what I have posted above is achievable? Digging down to the lowest point for about 75-80% of the area and then leaving the bank to the highest point? Many thanks.

I had considered maybe just digging down to the lowest point on the left hand side of this line and then leaving a bank on the right hand side of the line. So the banks would start from the line and upto the highest point of the boundary. Would that negate the need for retaining walls? Thanks

Hi Joe, thanks for the reply. Ideally yes, I would like to retain all of the middle section that you see in the photo between the front and back fence as I would like this to be flat and same level. It is unusable at the moment for a table and chairs or any kids garden toys so would like a large flat area.

Hi all, First post here so go easy ha. Looking to do some work in the garden before the summer comes in but not sure how to go about what I’m looking to achieve. You can see in the picture attached that our garden slopes from right to left with neighbours either side. There is a difference of 1170mm from the highest point on the right to the lowest point on the left. Rather than remove or add soil I would just take from the highest point and add to the lowest point. Would that then mean I would have to retain both sides? It might not be clear from the photo but the boundary fence curves towards the back and that leaves me stumped with regards to retaining. Would I somehow follow the curve of the fence or just build a straight retaining wall? Any help would be greatly appreciated.