New build garden - levelling, turf and patio

[Liam Goodaire]

Hi all.

We recently purchased our new home and our next project is going to be the garden.
We had originally arranged for this to be done professionally but there has been issues on their side which has now left us stuck with no garden and no one avail to come fix our garden till the end of the year.

Therefore, we are going to make a start ourselves.

The garden slopes from right to left, I need to raise the left side to be level with the current (s**t) patio and the right side lowered to the same level.
(We will patio this later).

The original plan was to run sleepers around the perimeter of the garden to not act as a retaining wall down the left side but to cover any gaps that will be exposed underneath the fence down the right hand side and to also keep it uniform around the entire garden as opposed to just one side.
I want to keep these as close to the fence to maximise the size of the garden whilst also not having any brackets or braces on the on show on the inside of the sleepers.

Should this work? Would anyone else recommend anything different? How would you advise securing the sleepers down and to each other without having anything on show from the inside of the garden and keeping them as close to the fence as possible?
Once dig out, would you lay the sleepers on soil or lay some sort of footings/substrate?

See pic of garden below, garden size is 12m x 11m.

 

[Swwils]

It totally depends on how deep your pockets are and what your appetite for work is!

Looking at the grass there is nowhere near a uniform 100mm of topsoil for it to grow properly, that or its full of debris.

If you can level generally without the need for sleepers that would be great, as if you want them to last they need considerable work to install.

Depending on what's under there it might just be too much effort and you will have to build the whole garden up.

 

[Liam Goodaire]

The soil is filled with debris and has never had any grass down before.
It was overgrown the other day due to the recent weather we’ve had but finally managed to cut it all back down this weekend to try and keep it tidy in the meantime.
The soil is quite clay like, so plans would be to review once the retaining wall/sleepers has been put in and the soil levelled and potentially remove and replace with decent top soil.
As for pockets and appetite for work, neither are really an issue.
It’s a matter of balancing that out and getting the garden something like to be able to try and enjoy it this year rather.
What would you recommend to build up with?
Baring in mind I’m not a tradesperson but just relatively good at DIY and willing to put the time in.
It needs to be raised from lowest appoint approx 16 inch to be level with current patio level which will be re done at the back end of project.

 

[Swwils]

Basically it would be cheaper to turn the current soil into a good topsoil.

In doing this you can also sort out the general levels at the same time.

This saves you buying loads of external topsoil and adding it, and subsequently increasing heights all around.

It should, also avoid the need for any sleepers.

 

[Liam Goodaire]

But to level I need to be able to raise down the left hand side and lower at the right hand side.
That means I need to retain the newly raised area?
And if that’s the case I wanted it to be uniform around the garden, plus it will cover any gaps exposed underneath fences from levelling.
Thanks in advance.