Hi,
I've recently moved into my new house and I'm looking for a bit of paving advice for my garden. At the moment, the garden is sloped parallel to my house, the lowest point being on the left side; additionally the garden is also sloped downwards towards the house from the end. The dimensions of the garden are roughly 10 meters x 6 meters - you can get a little bit of an idea from the photos below:
http://i.imgur.com/71BurfO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/HdPnaFp.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/uzA3FLW.jpg
The garden is basically just turf on top of compacted soil.
What I want to do is level the garden so I can extend the patio closer to the fences. From the research I've done, it looks like what I need is some kind of retaining wall on the lowest part of the slope near the fence so i can build up against it in order to make the patio flat. The problem I'm having is deciding the best kind of retainer for the job, I've seen people have used a variety of techniques such as railway sleepers, vertical pavers embedded in the ground, and good old brick and mortar; I was wondering if anybody has any idea as to what would be the best for my garden? Also, is there any pitfalls I need to be aware of in terms of drainage due to the incline?
Many thanks!