Jewell - we think along the same lines
When I redid my front yard, I just worked with what was at hand, things that my neigbors or relatives did not want, and I absolutely did not want to have to "buy" any soil.
Frillylily - here are a few photos of what I did in my front yard.
This area had a slight slope so just adding a railroad tie to the front part was all that was needed. Soil from the sod removed from the front of the railroad tie supplied the added soil and organic matter to behind the railroad tie. That tie was lanquishing in my sister's yard for years and they gladly gave it to me.
This area had a little more slope to it. My neighbor across the street was redoing his yard and got a bunch of rocks that he wanted to get rid of. He even carted them over to my yard for me.
The before shot of that area.
Further down in the line, I had two terraces here. The upper area had a row of small rocks, and the bottom area, I just used some old fence post to break the slope.
This area had the most slope. I wanted to plant vegetables here so I finally broke down and brought some bricks to make a retaining wall. Materials was about $200 and it took an afternoon of stacking. No cementing needed.
I also just shuffled soil from place to place, added compost, reused the lawn that was removed by burying some, and always knocking the dirt off of the clods that I sometimes toss out. One of my other neighbors grow tomatoes in pots, and when he threw out the potting mix at the end of the season, I was there at the curb carting his discarded potting mix to my yard. I did not buy any soil and got rid of all the grass in the process.
