Gardening & Landscaping

Best way to excavate garden to keep costs down

Anonymous user 28/02/2024 - 3.39 PM

Hi there, I have a smallish long and narrow garden which needs quite a lot of work doing. Previously when work was done on the house my neighbour informed me that the builders just chucked rubble etc on the garden and then it was turfed over. I have already got quotes from various landscape gardeners to fully excavate the garden, dig up and level the garden before adding limestone slabs at the back for a small patio, a raised bed, re-turfing and the addition of a new fence. The costs are aroudn £4,500 and most of them have said one of the main costs is the excavating and removal of turf, soil, slabs etc. Therefore to try and keep costs down I would like to excavate and level the ground before they commence re-turfing etc. I was just wondering what the best most effective way of doing this would be. By hand or using a machine? I have tried digging up material by hand before but found it was very hard and slow work (maybe I was using the wrong tools). Any advice appreciated. Thanks, Sara