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

Today, I hope, will be the final push.

DH will paint the outside of the beds and the chimney pots whilst I take the plants from the old herb bed and find them new homes in the raised beds. I/we will then level the rest of the plot. I need to dig some sand into the border where I will be planting my lavender bushes, as they will not like the heavy clay soil I have. I am then going to dig some compost into the area where the large border will be, and also into the lawn area. Grass does not generally need compost, but I am hoping that digging some in will improve the soil quality and stop it baking into a solid brick every summer.

So excited that this is nearly finished!

Also, and update on the slate from Wickes. I don't know if it was the tweet that DH sent, or whether it was my posts on here, but I got a call from Wickes' social media customer services department who appear to have had a word with the branches and turned a "Try" to get the slate out to a "It will happen"!

The man that I spoke to did say that the delivery managers are instructed to try branches in their local area if they are unable to fulfil a delivery themselves, which is really what should have happened early on in my case. He said that they would use this case as a training and development exercise, so hopefully there will be a general improvement to customer services in this respect.

HaughtyCulturist, Glad to hear they are sorting your delivery out.

Roma, Hope you heal quickly..sounds like a bad injury :(

DoingItOurSelves, How big is that spider. Afraid I would of handed over my house keys and just moved, if I found that in my garden.

I do think my cats (well the healthy three) like the new garden and one of them left me a dead bird right in the middle of a clean patch of paving...bless them.

I was so excited to wake up this morning and look outside and see plants and flowers in our garden ! OK, they still need canes and potting into the right containers but the end nearest the house is starting to look like a real garden. :)

Looking at Ronseal fence paint at B&Q website can't make my mind up between brown, red, reddy brown, dark brown. Husband refused requested I didn't paint the fences bright blue

This is an education in its own right. Things I have learnt :
*I am no longer afraid of garden bugs.
*Gardening is a never ending job.
*Brambles hide a multitude of things, So far we have rediscovered/reclaimed 2 lovely wooden benches, a amazing number of balls and 3 garden chairs!
*The more I do the more needs doing.
Learning is good, right?

I just came in for water now I'm back to it.

Quick late lunch. Discovered the bottom of the wall

not quiet finished but on it's way:

We will get it done before it rains:

Painting should be fine but really worried about the uneven ground and sorting it out and decking it in time.

Haughty that's looking amazing.

Sorry to be so brief but I need to get back out there.

My garden is mid-revamp. We had an extension built last year so it was chaos last summer. We need to make a gravel path and flower bed. We also need to dig out an old raised bed. Its against a north facing large wall and nothing grows in it except weeds. We need to flatten it but its huge - about 2-3m deep and very long. I'd like to reduce it to about 0.5m deep and just have climbers that will grow up the wall. We'll extend the lawn over the old border.
I'd also like to put in more vegetable beds using railway sleepers, and also get a greenhouse.

These all look great! We could use some help in ours. It is completely uninspired. And I would love to make a tranquil haven for myself the kids

Last minute panic now. Just bought an electric screwdriver to put my raised bed together.

wow, I'm seriously impressed! Everyone has done so well.

I had a few days off. My joints were very sore and DS and I have had a busy week. But on Thurs I bought some plants from a local hospital-run nursery. Got a rose climber, a rose bush, a couple of lavenders and a large Dahlia, DH and I have planted them and laid the weed membrane and gravel, and finished painting the fence. All other plants have been put in too, honeysuckle and clematis with a willow trellis, etc.

This is my little flower bed with my new rose.

Please excuse the washing

So, I'm not going to be finished tomorrow - thanks to bloody Wickes.

After having kicked up a royal fuss about them saying they wouldn't deliver the slate chippings on Friday, they promised that they would do so today, sometime between 10am and 4pm.

DH were in all day and no-one came.

According to Wickes, when I called them up at 4.15pm, the driver had been but "he knocked but there was no-one at home" so he couldn't deliver.

OK, DH and I were out in the garden all day but our door knocker basically has the living room as a soundbox and we can clearly hear the door knocker even at the end of the garden. Neither of us heard anyone knocking.

I got a missed call on my phone (assuming this was the delivery driver - neither of us heard it ring) but there was no voicemail and when I called the number back about 20 mins later, it went straight to voicemail. At the time of the missed call DH was painting the raised beds, so was in clear sight of the road down our side passage. No-one walked the 20 yards down this passage to see if there was anyone in the garden.

We live on a one-way street, so the driver would have had to go up the road and turn round and come back again, or used our neighbour's drive to turn. As I was expecting the delivery, I took a look every time I heard a diesel engine. I saw nothing. There was definitely no sound of a lorry stopping outside or turning.

I do actually doubt whether anyone did try to make the delivery.

I have to say that the manager of the store from which the delivery was supposed to come today (not the horrible one at the store where I placed the order) was very apologetic and did try to get in contact with one of the drivers still on the road to see if he could do the delivery, but didn't manage to do so.

I am really gutted that I won't be finished tomorrow.

I am not going to put any pictures up of today's efforts as the garden is all but finished. Just a couple of planters and plants to go in place once the weed-proof membrane and slate is down.

prepearing the soil and bed. Dh spent the day putting in the willow edging roll.

Done. :)

an impression of how it will look. lavenders ready to go in( now done)

just the pebbles to go down tomorrow over weed control fabric!
a little more painting!
and obviously the grass to be planted at a later date.
SO DMAN PLEASED I COULD BURST!

Terra, wow! That looks utterly stunning.

Creamola, that looks awesome.

sorry terra X post!

Everyones looks brilliant. you are all stars

Seriously, you should be very proud of yourselves.

thanks guys, am just so chuffed with it. :)
When you think what it used to look like

Oops that one was DH and DS cleaning the patio....this should be the before shot.

the difference is huge - well done!!