Intro

 So this spring and hopefully by the end of May, although I feel that is optimistic, I hope to transform our tiny little garden.

So the feeling is the space at the bottom closet the house is too small. The grass area at the top is too small, but Michelle (My wife) wants the bottom section bigger so that it can be used more socially. Which is fair enough as in the summer it's a nice sun trap and at the moment the bush (Ivy) is so large it's restricting the light. I also functions in another way in that it holds up an old wall my father in law built back in the 1970's.

(C) - Indicates how much grass will be left - not a lot about 12'. At the bottom - the flat area which this is all about is going to gain about 3' or a metre, but there'll be a seat along the entire length of the line (B). The steps (A) will go as well and be replaced by something new as well. Still working this out, but it'll probably be a Gabion style step system.

The main issue is that the earth that has got to be removed is about 10 cubic metres and I want to spend as little money on this as possible. 

Step 1 - get rid of the bush/Ivy. 

tThis is the view from the backdoor looking out into the garden. The drop from the grass to the lower level is about 1.4 metres.

This is the view looking down from the ramp.

At this point I have no idea how easy or hard this is going to be as I said at the start I want this to be as cheap and easy as possible with no time limit in particular, but done by the end of May would be a result.

I will have some help around Easter time as my two sons will be able to help.

The other thing is I haven't got a clue how long any of these jobs will take or how hard they're going to be, but there's no rush.

The initial plan at this stage is to see how easy or tricky getting rid of the bush will be and whether it'll lead to a landslide! 

Bush away first with the help of younger son Joe.

What's planned 

Something like this below

This is pretty much what we're going for, but the base Gabion hopefully will be lower and the ledge will be fitted with wooden planks to provide seating and also place to place plants.

Our flat area which we want to get more use out of would be to the right of our Gabion when seen from the side like this and the grassed area would be to the left.