I’m going to be putting some raised beds in, however in order to do it I need to shift a load of earth. So far I have already filled half a mini skip full of earth by hand and not really got that much out. I don’t have much time to do it either ie work and young child!

So do I just keep plodding on by hand or would I get it done much quicker using a mini digger. The only problem with a mini digger is that

1. I have never used one
2. I could only use a mini digger to dig out and transfer in to a wheel barrow, and then in to a skip..

The piles of earth are about 3ft high, the raised beds will be 1.5ft high.

What are your thoughts?

Oh and mini digger will be £110. Unofrtunately round here there do not appear to be any that do hire with a driver, which would make it a lot quicker and easer!

Use the £110 to pay a couple of lads, for a day cash in hand, to do it instead.

I doubt the mini digger is going to make a huge difference, unless you have a team to help you
ie: 1 driver, and (at least) two to barrow it out.

you need a couple mates and pay them in beer and BBQ. hire the digger and get your mates round.

You should be able to hire a digger for a lot less than £110. i got one for $40 for the weekend.

I filled a big skip full of earth by hand last Autumn, took a while but it was a damn sight cheaper than hiring a digger. Just do a bit everytime you get a spare hour or so and it’ll soon disappear. It’ll make your back ache though!

Failing that, £20 cash to a few local teenagers for a mornings graft and they’ll soon have it done.

Could you not take it gradually away in your trouser pockets, leaving discreet deposits out the bottom of each leg as you causally wander down the street? I saw this once in a documentary and it looked like a lot of fun.

Probably a stupid question, but why not just build one huge raised bed with the stuff that is there?

Why not just make the beds taller/bigger and use more soil?

A guy at my work (body builder) loves volunteering for this sort of work – great cardio / strength workout apparently.

Go hang out at your local gym and ask the roiders going in 🙂

You mean you don’t have staff for this kind of thing? How frightful

Actually – You just need to send following message to your mates:

“Hi lads. I’ve hired one of those mini-digger things, and the fridge is full of beer. Fancy coming round for a play?”

You’ll be inundated with volunteers. I remember hiring an enormous pneumatic drill to demolish some reinforced concrete walls. All my mates were suddenly interested. Even my mum insisted on having a go! 😀