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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:
Cremolafoam · 22/07/2013 10:04

Think it may be a Cinnabar Moth?

No pics - grr email refusing to function again. Will get them up as soon as my techy diffs are solved .

DoingItOurSelves · 22/07/2013 10:16

Bingo! Well done Cremola and thank you. Smile
As we're city based with no grazing animals, it can have potted ragwort here.

Roma2013 · 22/07/2013 11:05

That's really interesting DoingIt! Great knowledge re sugar. Are you a complimentary therapist?

TerraNotSoFirma · 22/07/2013 22:11

Starting patio

TerraNotSoFirma · 22/07/2013 22:13

Nearly done. Ran out of sand, will get it finished tomorrow.

TerraNotSoFirma · 22/07/2013 22:14

Flower bed is coming on.

TerraNotSoFirma · 22/07/2013 22:21

Went to b&q yesterday to get more sand, a further 16 bags still wasn't enough.
Never mind, will get more locally tomorrow. (Wouldn't have these problems if had got some advice when we first went to b&q :( )

Had great service at b&q yesterday however, Abby on the desk and Lily at the till were stars.
Found a few things that weren't online, a decorative door knocker and set of garden keys, fits right in with my secret garden theme.

TerraNotSoFirma · 23/07/2013 18:23

Patio finished

TerraNotSoFirma · 23/07/2013 18:24

Rock wall finished :)

Cremolafoam · 23/07/2013 20:07

Go Terra!
Looking great!

I have nearly finished painting the porch and dh has almost finished burning all the removed debris.( stayed on deck chair til 2am last night to make sure it was completely outGrin)
We FINALLY have ground zeroGrin

Tomorrow off to The great DIY Emporium with £250 we have left to spend. We have already only bought 2 saws , 2 tins of paint , a saw sharpener and a tow ropeSmile

Tomorrows list is this:
Lavender x 10
2x wisteria
2x John innes no 3 compost
1bag Course grit
Metal pins for weed fabric
Willow roll edging
Grass seed for shady areas
10 bags of pebbles
Manure/ soil improver

Have reserved to collect.
I live in hope b&q.

Apologies once more on the lack if pictures but I am having real difficulty with uploading. Dh trying to solve...

OpheliaBumps · 23/07/2013 20:31

I've had a bit of a setback. We were busy all weekend with bbqs/parties, but I'd planned to get quite a bit done yesterday, as I don't work on Mondays.

I've come down with a bug and spent the last 2 days in bed Sad I'm finally feeling human again now, but need to get cracking to get the rest of the fence done, plants bought etc etc

Cremolafoam · 23/07/2013 20:53

pull!

Cremolafoam · 23/07/2013 20:54

side view getting there!

Cremolafoam · 23/07/2013 20:55

a visitor

Cremolafoam · 23/07/2013 20:59

painted porch today.

Ophelia sorry your feeling poorly.
Hope you feel better soon Flowers

TerraNotSoFirma · 23/07/2013 21:54

Can't have a secret garden without the robin who showed the way. :)
He was more like a sparrow to begin with so I sponged his tummy with some of DD's red paint. :)

Roma2013 · 23/07/2013 22:19

Had quite a frustrating day. Had bought chemical paint to strip garage door. It was horrible - dh kicked up a fuss painting it on as it was so fumey. I ended up scraping it off. It was very strong and am not sure it looked any better. Only did half the door and we wondered if we should go back to original idea of disguising it. Eventually, anyway, most of the shed will hide it. Went back to B&Q but got thwarted and spent rest of money buying a patio table and four chairs which can be delivered earliest on 31 July. Exchanged masonry paint for the third time (hope it suits this time). It's got to the stage where dh is saying 'as long as you're happy with it'. Orphelia, hope you recover soon!

Maggietess · 23/07/2013 22:24

Bless my DH, he works so hard on making our completely impossible to tame and totally pointless to try grass look good every year! We're not lucky enough to be product testers but our garden failure improvement project involves him staring at the grass dry soil every year then buying bucket loads of grass seed. He diligently nurtures it over the next few months whilst it resolutely refuses to grow.
At the same time he formulates his theories as to why it doesn't work (too much rain, not enough water, shade from the trees, soil too shallow, birds eating the seed) and plans again for next year.
Bless his heart I smile and nod and we do the whole thing again....even though I'm fairly confident it's the kids slide and swing set that's killing it!!
It keeps him happy though, so it's well worth it Grin

OpheliaBumps · 23/07/2013 22:41

maggie we are going to replace our lawn with posh astroturf once we've saved up for it. We can get it fitted for £18 per square metre, which isn't much more expensive than lawn feed, weedkiller, new seed etc etc.

Wish we could get it done by the end of the makeover, but it'll have to wait a bit unfortunately.

Babieseverywhere · 23/07/2013 22:50

Thought I had better post some photos, too busy gardening to post !

Garden Before Picture

Yes, that is an office chair bottom right, best toy in the garden !

Babieseverywhere · 23/07/2013 22:53

Garden Before Picture

House end of garden. See mini greenhouse on top right...with dead plants. We are no gardeners...yet !

Babieseverywhere · 23/07/2013 22:59

Garden Before Picture

This is the bottom of the garden. The shed use to house bio diesel stuff, all skipped except a work bench which will be my new potting bench and the shed will be a store for the big cars and other children toys. This was a dumping ground and so much stuff had to be cleared up.

SmellsLikeWeenSpirits · 23/07/2013 23:08

Good work everyone. Hope the ill and injured are on the road to recovery

We've done most of the far work now, path laid, railway sleepers in, rockery re-rocked, turf cut, relocated, watered and watered again, three tonnes of gravel spread, weedy bed weeded and a few plants put in. We just have to weed the rest and tidy now. Phew.

Babieseverywhere · 23/07/2013 23:15

During picture

Showing the pressure washer in action. To be honest I really argued against spending wasting a third of the voucher money on a pressure washer but my goodness it really brings out the bricks....turns out they are yellow not gray !

We also managed to win an auction for 100 rubber tiles suitable for outside playground, so we decided to repave the middle third of the garden with these soft tiles. It took me two days to pressure wash them back to their original black under all the mud (yuck) on the front garden. But at 30p per tile versus £9 a tile for brand new, I'll put up with the cleaning.

DoingItOurSelves · 23/07/2013 23:17

Just got in through the door and have dinner in the oven, so short post, but had to tell everyone we hit Watford B+Q on the way back, partly to try and get sea green metalic paint (not stocked but we snapped up the very reduced lavender) and partly to have a look for these parking signs we'd missed.
In fairness it turns out there are lots of them but we'd simply not seen them. I guess we must have seen them out of the corner of the eye but not as being anything more than the normal 'not responsible for damage' 'park in bays' etc. But here's the interesting bit; they are all bearing little white patches and the time limit says 3 hours, not 2.
Well done B+Q I suspect!