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

[AngelieMumsnet]

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

So our plan is to :-

: Move shed sideways (Done)
: Move trampoline to bottom of garden (Done)
: Remove Fence from midway through garden (Done)
: Clear tons of rubbish from garden, biggest part of the job (90% done)
: Clean ALL the paving (Half way through)
: Repave middle garden using rubber tiles (Nearly Finished)
: Repaint fencing
: Add four shelf planter with pots and plants.
: Cement in water feature with water fountain.
: Build new playhouse (arriving Thursday)
: Enjoy new garden whilst nursing large glass of wine

Off shopping for plants and planters and garden lights tomorrow evening...children permitting. After a day of shifting 70 paving slabs to the front of the house, my shoulders hurt just thinking about it.

We hope to assign the children to play in the bottom two thirds of the garden and make the third nearest the house more for us adults with plants and no toys, well that is the plan !

I am SO impressed and envious .

Lovely to see what is being achieved. I am still doing my garden. ..without having been selected and have turned a muddy and rubbish filled area of my back patio area into a nice place to look at.

It looks so much better with the Cotswold stone pebbles and the plants.

Ophelia, great plan, I had suggested it but we're probably going to move in the next year or two so no point here now.

But I did have a friend who recently ironed her quagmire into a gorgeous artificial turf and it was totally fab results. I wasn't sure if it was real or not, even when I touched it. It was great! She said there's a 10 year warranty too but bear in mind you've to pay them an annual maintenance fee for this.

Good luck with yours!

Sand and cement for paving tomorrow

Pavers arrived too!

not a tester and not had a successful garden makeover.

my garden is huge compared to most and when i moved in was a total wreck. have managed to clear a lot and get the lawn in shape and plant a few bits and pieces to start building up privacy but it is so big and too much for me that it's a bit of a nightmare.

what i dream of is to be able to create a patio/decking area near to the house with paths from back door to it (rather than just mud all winter long to treck through) then a lawned area in the mid section with the bottom end where the big trees are still being the end for the trampoline and shady seating area but adding in a pond. i so want a pond. my garden is on a slope and in reality to achieve the above would cost an absolute fortune that i don't have.

but dreams are nice i guess.

Not a tester either, but very impressed at all the hard work going on by all the testers! Some lovely ideas being implemented.

We're doing a bit of work on our unloved newbuild wasteland, but all we've really managed is to scatter some grass seed and give the fences a lick of paint.

Still, painting the fences has made a difference, it's brightened everything up. :) Hopefully it'll be dry over the weekend so we can finish.

Still awaiting my 'reserve and collect' phone call from b et q. Phoned and it took Tracy 17 minutes 49 seconds to consult supervisor and tell me it wasn't ready yet.
Finishing painting in the meantime.
Feeling stroppy tbh. Could've been down and shopped for it myself this morning.

Not a tester, and only have a yard. However, even a yard can be a nice place to hang out in the evenings. I have got 2 troughs which have languished rather. One is full of weeds; foxgloves, nettles, feverfew, hypericum, campion, grass, and a few others I can't name. It looks great, and just sweeping the yard clean and having some weeds growing in the corner makes it a nice place to hang out. Even if you only have a tiny space and a tiny budget, it is possible to make a pleasant outdoor space.

Frax there are some good weeds IMHO
Worth keeping the foxgloves and hypericum for sure. Not sure about the nettles unless you like nettle tea!

B and q where are you?!!!!
No phone call. Unable to get hold of anyone on the phone down at the store . Am a bit
What do I do now ? Will the hold my reserve and collect order or not?

Lovely Matthew < b&q evening shift> has sorted me out for tomorrow apparently .
Not holding my breath

we have so much to do!
inspired by these pics, well done gardeners!

we have a floody weedy area earmarked to be slabbed and walled around for patio; are stymied though as we need some major drainage putting in...
there is a garage linked shed that needs burning..
a smaller shed that also needs demolishing
an old greenhouse used for dumping stuff like the old bbq.. needs dismantling
and a row of v large evergreens to chop down.
Just don't know where to start!!

Choc keep the faith !
Just start anywhere. Each job leads to another. You won't need to worry about what order you're doing things in until towards the end during reconstruction or planting.( best bit)
Good luck! Wellies on..

I'm a non-tester, our garden is full of incomplete garden projects, only thing we seem to be able to stick to is cutting the grass!!

Why is your unloved garden unloved? What do you want to change about it? What has stopped you until now?

We only have a small front garden of approx 5x1 metres and it was a state when we moved in 12 years ago. We did make an effort to sort it out around 8 years ago and it has been left to it's own devices ever since whilst we have been distracted having babies. Recently some workmen had to dig up the garden to re-lay some cables and disturbed the weed prevention membrane, this resulted in a massive surge in the growth of weeds, some of which were taller than me!
I started to feel embarrassed at the state of it when people called to the house and then Mumsnet and B&Q came along just in time. The only things stopping me before were time, money and motivation.

• Where did you get your inspiration for doing up the garden from? What sort of style are you going for etc?

My boys have recently taken part in the planting of a sensory garden at school which they really enjoyed. Each class took different plants such as fragrant plants, pretty plants etc. I quite like japanese style gardens using stones and pebbles. I think we'll probably use lots of lavender, thyme, sage, anything which smells nice and use white stones to surround them. I also plan to use some plum coloured shale in the remaining surrounding areas.

• Have you had much help along the way with the revamp? If so, who from? And what sort of help - practical or ideas-based?

I've enlisted the help of my DH because we are now on 7 hours of de-weeding and clearing despite it being a small garden. I'm planning to let the boys choose the plants and get them involved in the planting and finishing touches.

• 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?

I went to my local B&Q and found all the staff to be very helpful, the cashier at the till was very nice and spoke to our very tired and fed up boys. I bought items such as hammerite for the metal gate, masonary paint to refresh the fence posts, fence stain, plants, flower pots etc and managed to find everything I needed.

I'll now attempt to post some photos and i'll answer the other questions as we get nearer to completion.

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Previous photos are of the jungle.

Here is the progress we've made in terms of clearing the weeds to make way for the plants...

I have no idea why they are the wrong way round, please tilt your head for full effect

Hmm not had the best experience in the B& Q plant department. The herbs were all half dead, really poor selection as well, so I'll have to get them from somewhere else, as I plan to plant herbs along the path at the side of the house. The thyme and rocket which self seeded there are thriving, so it's clearly an ideal place for herbs!

I went to choose a clematis, but they have obviously been on the shelf for ages as they'd all grown into each other and I couldn't separate them. DH pervered and managed to separate one or two from the tangled mass, but they had so much dead material at the bottom I wasn't convinced they'd survive very long. It's such a shame, most plants were well kept, but they'd crammed so many clematis (clematises?) into a tiny space they just didn't stand a chance.

On the plus side I got some bargain box plants for my planters, and a lovely hydrangea, can't wait to get planting tomorrow.

I've also had the delivery date confirmed for the new playhouse , this is in addition to the vouchers, and won't arrive until 1st august, so I'll have a blank spot in my 'after' pictures, but I'll update with my final picutre once it's painted and built.

Wow unloved great progress, well done!

Thanks Ophelia, can't believe such a small space is taking so much effort

Can I just say, as well, how helpful Lisa (at the Byker store) was the other day. She went out of her way to help, even ringing around other local stores to see if they had what we were seeking. Excellent customer service by a personable, interested assistant. After a number of disappointing interactions at B&Q, she made me feel I'd go back. It makes such a difference, meeting with such helpful members of staff.