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I’ve seen railway sleepers used to good effect as retaining walls, new ones not old ones full of nasty creosote. It is difficult to see the slope - does it slope down towards the hedge at the bottom? Paving looks good, so keep that if you like it. As you have a rather nice view, I think a more naturalistic garden would blend nicely with the landscape, that is trees and shrubs surrounded by lawn. This, of course, may not be what you’re looking for at all, but I think an over fussy garden just wouldn’t look right.

Thanks. if anyone has any pictures of railway sleepers used for retaining wall i would love to see. Sounds like it will be the cheapest option. Yes it does slope down towards the hedge, quite steep. Paving will be staying as is...just needs a clean. Its nice patio running across top of garden. I like naturalistic garden ideas but we are kind of trying to create some flatish grass space that kids can play on.

Hi there. We can see the photos now:) Hard to tell what the gradient of the slope is like from the photos but the garden looks a decent size and I think you could do lots with it. Agree with Sonia that timber sleepers are probably the cheaper option for retaining walls but if your prepared to do a lot of work yourself you could source some stones from recycling sites such as freecycle, gumtree etc. and build a drystone wall. Just be aware that creating different levels will involve a LOT of digging and stones are really heavy for transporting. Something to bear in mind. Style wise I think this depends on your taste and what you’d like to use the garden for. Are you a keen gardener? Would you like lots of plants/flowers or would you prefer easy maintenance? Do you need a large space for entertaining? play area for kids? Storage, do you need a shed? All thing to consider when planning a garden. I remember a Houzz garden tour which had various levels on a steep slope which might give you some ideas. I’ll see if I can find it. You have a cracking view so I think it would be important to make the most of it and I like Sonia’s inspiration for a naturalistic garden. My parents have a similar slope in their garden and planted lots of spring bulbs in the grass and come spring it’s a riot of colour with snow drops, daffodils, crocuses, blue bells and wild garlic.
Out of interest, what is the large stone circle thing in the middle?

Here’s the garden tour: https://www.houzz.co.uk/magazine/garden-tour-a-cleverly-designed-sloped-garden-in-cheddar-gorge-stsetivw-vs~120722934

Some ideas for timber sleepers

And dry stone wall

Thanks for pictures - great ideas, loving the first one...Would be able to have some small shrub areas too using that idea to add some colour in spring.
The stone feature in middle was some sort of water feature linked to a pond further dowm, behind bonfire. But not really practical with the kids so will probably be removing these.

Hi, I recently saw a Garden Rescue episode in which they used gabion walls. Perhaps you can watch it back? I don't know, I'm not in the UK, so can't watch episodes back. Think it was the one in Swansea https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004wwv

Update on our garden project! Thanks for the sleeper retaining wall ideas - we are very pleased with end result! See before and after picture. Still a few finishing touches to be done but getting there and finally have some grass growing after a winter of mud, mud, mud!!! Just need some bushes/plants to go along top edge of sleepers as it is quite a drop off the edge, dont want anything too big but just something to give it a bit of ad edge to save falls! Any comments or ideas what to use for this please?

Neat, but did all those plants need to go?

Some plants have been moved elsewhere around the house. 😉 What was there was rather an overkill for the size of garden and we wanted flat open space for kids to play in back garden.