Hi, my garden is about 8m square or thereabouts, with a left to right
slope, 1/3rd of which is below the floor level of the house. I plan to
digg out (the middle part) of the left of the garden and use some of it
to fill in the right side, after building a small retaining wall (so I
still have side access to my garage.)

I started doing it by hand and the top spade depth's is pretty easy but
under that is thick clay with egg sized stones in which makes work very
hard indeed. I was planning on digging down deeper than I needed &
then back filling with the top soil I had removed earlier. It seems
that a mini-digger would make this work much much easier. Has anyone
had any experience of using them?

The other question to ask is I was thinking of removing turves of grass
then putting them back later but from looking at what I've removed so
far I would have a very uneven lawn as my turves are only about twice
the size of a spade and not very even in depth (the sods.) The lawn is
also about 30% moss. Would it be foolish to forget the grass that's
there and attempt to sow a new lawn from seed after I'd levelled
everything out?

Thanks for your help!

-- wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi, my garden is about 8m square or thereabouts, with a left to right
slope, 1/3rd of which is below the floor level of the house. I plan to
digg out (the middle part) of the left of the garden and use some of it
to fill in the right side, after building a small retaining wall (so I
still have side access to my garage.)

I started doing it by hand and the top spade depth's is pretty easy but
under that is thick clay with egg sized stones in which makes work very
hard indeed. I was planning on digging down deeper than I needed &
then back filling with the top soil I had removed earlier. It seems
that a mini-digger would make this work much much easier. Has anyone
had any experience of using them?

Little Mini Diggers, those narrow enough to go down a side path, are
available for hire, but a couple of things I would point out, 1) once you
have the digger on site, and once you have dug your trench, are you going to
be able to get the digger out or would you have 'dug yourself' in? and 2) if
you are going to dig all of this clay and egg stones out, is the stuff
suitable for building the ground up, or are you going to be lumbered with
the expense of getting rid of it?


The other question to ask is I was thinking of removing turves of grass
then putting them back later but from looking at what I've removed so
far I would have a very uneven lawn as my turves are only about twice
the size of a spade and not very even in depth (the sods.) The lawn is
also about 30% moss. Would it be foolish to forget the grass that's
there and attempt to sow a new lawn from seed after I'd levelled
everything out?

Take the turves off in any manner and stack them upside down. I have done
this where I have put paths in or dug extra flower beds. The grass and weeds
die and in a couple of years, or less, you have a lovely fine tilth :-))


Thanks for your help!


My pleasure :-))

Mike


H.M.S.Collingwood Ass. Llandudno 20 - 23 May Trip to Portmeirion
National Service (RAF) Ass. Cosford 24 - 27 June Spitfire Fly Past
H.M.S.Impregnable Ass. Sussex 1 - 4 July Visit to Int. Fest of the Sea
RAF Regiment Assoc. Scarborough 2 - 5 Sept. Visit to Eden Camp

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi, my garden is about 8m square or thereabouts, with a left to right
slope, 1/3rd of which is below the floor level of the house. I plan to
digg out (the middle part) of the left of the garden and use some of it
to fill in the right side, after building a small retaining wall (so I
still have side access to my garage.)

I started doing it by hand and the top spade depth's is pretty easy but
under that is thick clay with egg sized stones in which makes work very
hard indeed. I was planning on digging down deeper than I needed &
then back filling with the top soil I had removed earlier. It seems
that a mini-digger would make this work much much easier. Has anyone
had any experience of using them?

The other question to ask is I was thinking of removing turves of grass
then putting them back later but from looking at what I've removed so
far I would have a very uneven lawn as my turves are only about twice
the size of a spade and not very even in depth (the sods.) The lawn is
also about 30% moss. Would it be foolish to forget the grass that's
there and attempt to sow a new lawn from seed after I'd levelled
everything out?

Thanks for your help!

I have done a similar terracing job only on a larger scale, and hired a
digger (2 tonner) twice. I had never driven one before and the hire man gave
only 2 minutes of instruction. However, within 10 minutes of use I was
digging quite well and within an hour I felt I could turn professional. They
are very easy to use, and make life a lot easier. Choose your bucket(s)
according to what you want to achieve, and consider having a scraper bucket
to help with final levelling. They are pretty stable, but be careful not to
work across the slope too much as they can be tipped if you over load or
over reach - work up and down as much as you can. You are actually more
likely to throw off a track than actually tip over (I did once, but I was
being a bit extreme, cross slope), but they are easily put back on though it
may require the hirer's fitter to come out and do that.
They're good fun.
Good luck.

Mike wrote:
-- wrote in message
ups.com...
Little Mini Diggers, those narrow enough to go down a side path, are
available for hire, but a couple of things I would point out, 1) once
you
have the digger on site, and once you have dug your trench, are you
going to
be able to get the digger out or would you have 'dug yourself' in?
and 2) if
you are going to dig all of this clay and egg stones out, is the
stuff
suitable for building the ground up, or are you going to be lumbered
with
the expense of getting rid of it?

The side access path is already at the level of the house so it
shouldn't be a problem. I don't mind a bit of the "bad" soil in there
to build the other side up but yes I think some of it will need to be
taken away so I guess I need to think about hiring a skip or something
at the same time. ...or using some kind of "great escape" arrangement
:-)

The side access path is already at the level of the house so it
shouldn't be a problem. I don't mind a bit of the "bad" soil in there
to build the other side up but yes I think some of it will need to be
taken away so I guess I need to think about hiring a skip or something
at the same time. ...or using some kind of "great escape" arrangement
:-)


I cannot somehow or other, see your neighbours standing by and watching as
great clumps of clay fall from the bottom of your trousers* as you 'stroll'
across their lawns.


*Idea courtesy of Eric Williams(?) and the Wooden Horse

Mike
Keeping an eye on his garden ;-)