Alicia, I can't answer your question . . . it depends on your experience and comfort level using heavy equipment. I'd visit a local equipment rental place, take a look at the options and talk to the staff. In my experience they're very helpful. Good luck with your landscaping project.

Alicia- I don't mean to be unkind, but if you don't even know what type of equipment you need how in blazes do you hope to know how to operate it?

Many times hiring an experienced guy that will bring his own machines is going to be way cheaper than renting something, wasting half a day trying to learn how to use it, and then best case scenario doing a half assed job, worst case tearing up your yard.

People with experience can get it done ten times better ten times faster.

I'd at least get a few estimates and think about it.

I have rented a Terramite T5C which is a very small backhoe several times. i also used to own a John Deere 450 which weighed maybe 4 times as much and could lift a yard/ton of dirt in one pass.

The Teramite would be very inexpensive it only has about a 20 HP engine but it gets the job done. I used it to dig up my septic drain system and then rebury it. I also used it after we rebuilt our house to connect the down spouts into the existing french drain. I'm thinking you could use it like an excavator to pull up dirt and then move it with the loader bucket. The advantage of it is the rental price. My rental shop still has it, but they're closed, but I think the rental was a few hundred dollars a day. One thing I hated about this machine is every time you go from digging to using the bucket you need to reverse the seat and this machines seat was a hassle to spin around.

The John Deere loader had the advantage that you could do the digging and lifting in one pass, assuming your moving dirt in a truck. It will also load any dump truck regardless of its height. Also an advantage is that it has diggers (poking out in front of the loader bucket) A disadvantage is the rental cost. Another is that it's a track machine so does a lot of tearing up the ground and the driveway. The machine I owned was built in the 1960's mine was a JD 450, each time they revised the machine over the decades the added a letter to the model number. JD 450A, JD450B. It's possible you could buy one cheaper than renting one and then sell it for a net zero cost. I paid $7500 for mine.

The hardest part of learning how to use these machines is learning how to dig. The backhoe is easy to learn. The loaders you've got to learn to tilt the loader bucket so that it's angled into the dirt as you move forward. I picked up on that when I said how would I do this with a shovel. Angle it into the ground and push with my foot.

I think you might be best renting a Track skid loader like the John Deere 317G. Maybe not this machine but something similar hopefully with diggers. I use that as an example as my rental dealer has one on his web page.

edit: My dealer delivers and picks up his machines as part of the rental charge.

A bobcat is very easy to learn to use......maybe a quick lesson and 30 minutes practice time. I'm an old lady and it didn't even take me that long to feel comfortable with the thing. If you can manage a ride-on mower or garden tractor, you will have NO trouble with a bobcat. You can do just about anything you need to with this machine and well worth the couple hundred $$ rental fee.

Or - and this would be my preference - find someone in the business that already owns one and would hire out for the day. Cost would be similar.