The message
from Fevets contains these words:

Hope I might be able to get some ideas or recommendations...

I have patch of land around .5 acres, south facing and sloping at
around 35 degrees (going up from my property) to a height of around 30
feet to a hedge and substation the other side.

The land is composed of a rough soil mixed with bricks, coal ash /
clinker and stone. The only things growing are dandelions etc. The
depth of the waste appears to be at least 6 feet (I believe its from
an old mill clearance, bulldozed out of the way in the 80's to build
the houses), so clearance to 'real earth' is out of the question.

So - my problem is how to develop the land to garden. At the moment my
thought is to terrace into levels and put a layer (12 inches ? 18
inches ???) of compost / soil and grow in that. I am really not sure
how to go about this - can anyone advise on the correct levels of
compost / soil I would need, depths to work to, or recommend any books
for developing a garden on what I suppose is a 'brown field site'.

The fact that dandelions and knotweed grow, shows that there's enough
soil to support plants and seedlings. Unless you are exceedingly rich
don't attempt to change it. Garden with what you've got, it makes a lot
more sense, and you will be following the footsteps of some of the UK's
greatest gardens. Use the conditions you have, grow the kind of plants
which will thrive superbly in those conditions. (Somewhere, some
desperate millionaire is spending a fortune to construct a rocky scree
slope like the one you've been blessed with).

You haven't said where you are (in the UK), what elevation above
sealevel, and which way the garden faces.(North /south, sunny/shaded)
That would be helpful before we all launch into plant suggestions.

Janet