Using excavation contractors for your garden landscape

exc With the correct excavation contractors and a well-planned approach, excavating a garden landscape can be done quickly while maintaining the renovation budget.

Most garden landscaping jobs on steep blocks involve some sort of excavation work. Projects such as levelling the ground to have a lawn or an entertainment area, creating a series of spaces connected by paths or steps, or cutting sections out of a slope to put in some garden beds and retaining walls are usually too big to be done manually.

Plan your garden landscaping with an expert

Landscape designer Patrick Graham has overseen numerous garden landscaping excavations in his quarter of a century in the business. He suggests that any serious earthworks should be carefully planned right from the outset.

"The biggest mistake people make is to start earthworks without consulting a landscaper first," he says. "You need at least some sort of landscape design in mind when excavating, otherwise how will you know where to dig?"

Patrick suggests that anybody with comprehensive garden landscaping experience can assess a difficult site and develop - in consultation with the client - ideas for levelled areas, retaining walls, garden beds, paths and steps. Whether the designs are rough sketches or detailed plans, once they are agreed on, the excavator can be brought in to do the job.

Recycling earth within the landscape

A garden landscaper can also advise on efficiency. If earth is being removed from one location, that same earth can be used elsewhere. For example, when levelling a section of a slope, the earth cut from the slope can be placed in front of the sloping ground to enlarge the levelled area. Patrick refers to this practice as "robbing Peter to pay Paul".

"If you use the earth already there it reduces the need to use imported earth," he says. "And you end up carting less away, which is an expensive process."

Space access for excavating equipment

Access is another important issue when excavating difficult sites. How can the equipment get into your garden? If the only access is down a narrow side path, then you will be restricted in the type of equipment you can use.

There are excavation contractors that are specifically designed to fit through narrow access points, but these are, by their nature, smaller, and have less capacity.

If there is a back lane or other rear access, you might be able to get something larger in. If the earthworks are being done on new or open land, then you can use equipment as large as necessary.