Terracing a very steep slope

[Alison]

Love the photos - it certainly looks a challenge. One suggestion if you wanted to avoid having to spend lots of structural money on what is not your own property: you could get cuttings of Bocking-14 comfrey (which does not spread: do NOT get ordinary comfrey, which is complete nightmare) and plant up the slope with that as a sort of immediately-available fresh compost heap. It would bind the soil and provide a permanent useful resource. Every time the plants got too big, you just cut them down and use the cuttings as a mulch round other plants, or bung them in a water-butt to make a liquid feed. They are good for pollinating insects too.
Alison.

[peter]

i dont know alot about the subject but saw this incase helps sir
http://www.railwaysleeper.com/Kings%20landscaping%27s%20railway%20sleeper%20project.htm

looks quite strong and useful kind of what mole said.

My goodness, the cost of that lot make me feel weak at the knees , never mind the thought of moving them and setting them in.

[cevenol jardin]

I really would not recommend putting in a cement or mortar wall. A low retaining dry stone wall would be my recommendation. If you can access stones you could do it yourself for free. Drystone moves with the land has no imprint, is easily removed and lets water pass through.
It is actually incredibly easy to do and since the retainer would not have to be very high a beginner could do it (safety issue).
As we live on a very steep hill all our growing land is terraced with dry stone walls as retainers. We have been building new ones and repairing old ones and i put up a few pages on our site as to how to do it. So if you take a look you can see how it is done.
http://www.masdudiable.com/fluxit/mdd.n ... g-wall.htm
and the btcv do a great and easy to follow guide to walling that is free to download or print off at http://www.btcv.org/skills/walls/drystone.html