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MNHQ

B&Q Unloved Gardens feedback thread. Non-testers: add your unloved garden comments - £150 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

586 replies

AngelieMumsnet · 10/07/2013 12:20

This thread is for the 20 Mumsnetters who have been chosen by B&Q to revamp their unloved garden.

Those selected have been sent a B&Q giftcard to buy the things they need to give their unloved garden a makeover. They're working to complete the makeover by the 28th, and will be keeping us up-to-date on how their revamps are going on this thread as well as posting photos.

Please do follow their stories and add your own comments if you want to show some support!

Below are the questions we'd like testers to answer but please feel free to add your own comments too. Please give us a bit of info about the garden you're revamping and what you plan to do with it in your response.

  • Why is your unloved garden unloved? What do you want to change about it? What has stopped you until now?
  • Where did you get your inspiration for doing up the garden from? What sort of style are you going for etc?
  • Have you had much help along the way with the revamp? If so, who from? And what sort of help - practical or ideas-based?
  • How did you find your shopping experience at B&Q? Were the staff helpful? Did you find anything in store you maybe didn't expect to beforehand?
  • Did you use any of the help and advice that B&Q offer? This includes their videos on YouTube, leaflets and classes in store etc. If so, how useful was that help and advice?
  • If B&Q could do anything more to help you next time you visit, what would it be?
  • Have you had any feedback on what you've done with the garden from family/friends? Has the transformation had a big impact on you and/or your family?

If you're not an official tester but would like to be in with a chance of winning a £150 B&Q giftcard, please post on this thread to tell us about your own garden revamp successes (or failures!) - we'd love to hear from all MNers who have a garden makeover story to share!

Thanks very much
MNHQ

OP posts:
SmellsLikeWeenSpirits · 19/07/2013 20:02

WOw Tallulah go your dd!

That's fantasic

Oh yes, lavender is beautiful and the bees like it

TallulahTT · 19/07/2013 20:31

I'd really like a front path now, doesn't fit our front garden style at all but I like the idea. Who would have known we'd be working in such high temps when we signed up. I'm dreading a hosepipe ban, I've emptied the paddling pool onto the grass today and the water just soaked in, no squelching at all!
Thanks smells, she worked so hard last night whist I was working, it's the part I see from the kitchen window too. We still have lots of bargain plants to plant.

lissieloo · 19/07/2013 21:06

Roma, don't say that! You are doing fantastically. Our project was actually really easy. I'm desperate for a shed now. Our lawnmower is currently under the stairs, along with Florence, my tool box, Mavis (my old drill) and the strimmer. As well as the hoover and a zillion shoes.

Tallulah, wow, I am very impressed, that looks ace. I'm getting ds to work over the hols, buying him a small gardening kit tomorrow. I'm really shocked at how warm its getting. I have a tan for the first time in years.

Ween, I use lavender in cooking quite a lot. Its so nice.

SmellsLikeWeenSpirits · 19/07/2013 22:46

In cooking lissie? Where?

roma I'm a bit of a fraud and we've bought in help. The b&q £ has covered materials and given us a kick up the bum but we'd never have been able to do the paving without our lovely friend doing it for us, and we will be paying him separately for that

I'll be doing the prettifying, which is weeding and planting and tbh I've not really had the time to get stick into that yet. It's just toooo hot

Isn't it funny to think that when we applied for this we were worried it would rain solidly for a month?

Tomorrow I'm going to be transplanting more turf, weeding and a bit of planting. In between sweating and eating ice cream

How are the other film makers getting on? I've done lots of pics but am lacking a bit with the movies

Cremolafoam · 19/07/2013 22:59

What's with the filming ladies. I am not aware if this partShock??

lissieloo · 19/07/2013 23:04

In cakes and biscuits mainly (although its quite nice in Lamb Tagine) I make lavender and lemon cupcakes and lavender and honey biscuits.

Roma2013 · 19/07/2013 23:14

Smells, I never got any app or info about video footage so am assuming they edited me out of that from the start. I'd taken footage on my iphone but then they never mentioned it again when issuing me with gift catd so assuming, having looked at my profile, they didn t want me. Have been taking photos tho

Roma2013 · 20/07/2013 07:03

Smells, I got a Promotion ad via email yesterday about half price shrubs for TODAY only. Would your box hedges come under that. To be eligible you have to be registered as a clubcard member I think and it may only be selected shrubs

lissieloo · 20/07/2013 12:16

Not everyone needs to film footage.

I'm in town, there is a crafty fair on in the square and I have just bought this birdfeeder for a fiver, I love it!

Roma2013 · 20/07/2013 14:02

Bugger! Have smashed my finger lifting breeze blocks. .. having to go to A&E now...could do without this

lissieloo · 20/07/2013 15:04

Oh no, Roma, how awful. Hope you haven't broken it.
Thanks

TerraNotSoFirma · 20/07/2013 15:33

Hope your finger isn't too bad Roma :(

Just in having a wee break out of this heat, must be over 30 today here in the highlands.

Finishing my stone wall today and getting the flower bed prepped for planting.
DH is digging, levelling and putting sand down where the patio is going.
Will put up a photo when we are done.

Hope everyone is having a nice day in the sun :)

Babieseverywhere · 20/07/2013 15:39

Nice day, in this heat !

Just having a break whilst I put baby down for a nap and back to clearing and pressure washing stuff. Going to post proper update and photos tonight when we have finished for the day.

Garden is looking very different now but a long way to go until we have finished.

TerraNotSoFirma · 20/07/2013 16:10

Well, it would be a nice day if we weren't working our asses off babies :)

lissieloo · 20/07/2013 18:20

I have just sorted out the large flower bed, the previous tenants must have had those white stones in the back garden, but put them directly onto soil. I have pots full of stones.

Cremolafoam · 20/07/2013 19:18

We are having a rest day. Down Tools!
Can't face pulling out another tree in the heat. My face looks likeAngry
Lol

TallulahTT · 20/07/2013 20:14

Roma, hope your finger is better soon.

We are doing what I hope are the final parts this week, the more fun prettier bits, I am so happy with the view from my kitchen window, I used to think every time I looked out I relly should do something with it, now it loves great I'm so pleased.

I worry it will sound ungrateful and I'm not! But I have been surprised how expensive things have been if I hadn't have got all the reduced plants on Thursday I think it would still be looking rather bare. One of the flower beds looks a bit,well, busy but I like having so much to look at and watching the bees, the bedding plants will fill the gaps until my shrub type things grow although one of them has new stems growing already, it just makes me so happy to see the progress.

Roma2013 · 20/07/2013 20:42

Finger isn't broken but there was rather a deep gouge. Anyway, they patched me up with steristrips and a bandage and told me to keep it clean. Yeah, right. Not sure I can lift pavers as was going to lay them next week. Might have to get a friend in to help dh. On the plus side, the shed is completely dismantled and we shall re-erect it once all the paving and painting is done which I suspect will be post deadline now, given my finger.

majjsu · 20/07/2013 22:20

Not a tester but oh dear the garden at the front looks like a jungle. Bushes were meant to grow in abundance, instead I have more weeds! A neighbour made a comment. I think I had been turning a blind eye.

TerraNotSoFirma · 20/07/2013 23:55

Well, that's me just in.

Midge bites, sweating buckets, covered in mud and a tiny bit of sunburn where I obviously didn't reach with the factor 50, but it's really coming together.

The wall is nearly done, half the patio is laid (need b&q trip for more sand tomorrow, grr)
I've moved some of the plants from the front garden to the back and will hopefully get some more at b&q tomorrow.
I reckon by this time tomorrow night it should be all done bar a bit of tidying.

Roma2013 · 21/07/2013 09:11

Today I am aiming to prepare our walls to be painted for Wednesday and clear the yard for paving. We have a small yard and a bloody big trampoline that we are too afraid to take down as it took forever to put up. It will have to be moved from side to side as and when we pave. There's a lovely big rambling rose bush (from next door) which I don t really want to hack back but need to in order to paint that side of the yard wall Hmm

HaughtyCulturist · 21/07/2013 11:12

I am rather behind with my posting, so apologies for several days updates at once!

Friday was an utterly frustrating day for me. I had booked the day off and had hired a rotavator from HSS hire. I collected it early in the morning and got stuck in. It was really hard work but I was just beginning to make progress when my delivery of building materials from B&Q arrived. I went to supervise these being unloaded, and then returned to my rotavator. I noticed that the handle was at a funny angle, and realised that one side had sheared off! I decided that was no good and went to wheel it back to my car, only for the handle to come off completely.

Without the handle it was not possible for me to move it, so I called up the store and complained. They said that they would send out a delivery driver to collect it and to send me a new one at the same time.

Several hours later, the new one arrived. The driver seemed really reluctant to test it for me to make sure it was working, but he eventually agreed to do so. However, all he did was to fire it up. I went to start using it, and it didn't move at all. Another call back to the store, but by that time they did not have any machines to send out to me that day. They agreed to send a third machine the following morning.

When DH got home from work he had a look at it, and we eventually came to the conclusion that there was a clip or mounting that was supposed to hold the clutch cable in tension, but was missing.

I did manage to do a huge amount of hand digging on Friday - I dug all around the edge of the lawn where the rotavator won't get to, and went through the existing flower bed to remove the plants that I don't want to keep.

This was how the garden looked when I started the day:

HaughtyCulturist · 21/07/2013 11:12

I don't know my own strength!

HaughtyCulturist · 21/07/2013 11:13

I don't know my own strength!

HaughtyCulturist · 21/07/2013 11:17

Yesterday was a rather better day.

My very lovely nephew came to help us out, and between us we managed to get a huge amount done. My mum even came for an hour or so and did a bit of weeding (she is not very well, but was able to sit on a garden chair and pull up the grass growing up by the fence, which was really helpful).

We managed to get the garden fully rotavated, the raised beds planned out and marked up, the footings dug and then filled with concrete!

The three of us were absolutely knackered by the end of the day, and are all in quite a bit of pain with various aches today, but it was well worth it. DH and I are about to get stuck in with the blockwork today.