digging up a sloping garden

[paulhever]

i want to make my sloping garden(turfed) into 3 flat levels with no grass. where do i start? How do i dig up the grass any tips please?

[toltol]

I think you are talking about 'Terracing ' your sloping garden. Effectively you will need to create large flat steps with retaining walls to hold the edge of each step. (I use 'walls' in a loose sense as they do not have to be made of brick, you can use wood, stone etc).

Removing grass is not too hard depending on how much of it there is. Small areas can be done with a spade. Use the spade cut the edges of a strip of lawn about the width of your spade. Then using your spade quite low to the ground cut between these two edges to to remove a strip of turf between your two original cut marks. The slice should be one to two inches thick; grass doesn't have very deep roots. You're aiming for something that looks like a sheet of turf about the size of your spade. If it's a big area you can always hire lawn strippers from Hire Shops.

[paulhever]

cheers for that toltol, i thought i might need some sort of retaining walls, getting the grass up will be a tough job tho, garden is about 12 meters (L) 5meters (w) with a flat patio at the bootom, when stood on patio top of garden is at eye level (4 1/2 ft ish) they will be alot of digging and filling in!!!!!