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

Creamola,that is going to be one delicious smelling pathway :)it's looking gorgeous.
I love lavender.

Thanks Lissie.
I love yours too, if I had that view I'd sit in the garden all day.

DH and I have just worked out that he was in the house at the time of the missed call on my phone, and he didn't hear it ring. I was in sight of the road. There was no way that Wickes came at that time. If they came later and knocked they certainly did not call my phone.

I have been lied to by someone.

thank you, that's v sweet.

Haughty, that's shite

Ach haughty that's bollox. I'm really sorry you've had such a rough time of it. Appalling customer care ;really doesn't take much for someone to just take responsibility you'd think.

Thanks terra I am chuffed to bits.
Dh has been a Trojan. He has slaved over the really hard stuff like removing all the grass with a spade and shifting and digging out 16 trees.
Photos don't do it justice tbh as I only have the phone camera.

Lissie I can just imagine relaxing with a cup of tea in your garden. It is gorgeous.
I can't believe how much effort has been put in - paving concreting digging painting. Amazed!

I have been shopping today with my boys to choose some plants. DH is going to go back tomorrow to pick up the shale and stones to finish off...nothing like a last minute rush.

Everyone elses look amazing

I put the raised bed together today. It was a bit of a disaster really as I was doing it on my own and I could have done with a hand holding the wood etc. it was the first time I'd done anything like it and my joinery skills are about zero. Anyway, it is done of a fashion and I'm trying to stake it into the ground which isn't easy as the stakes are so long. I'm not sure why they are so long.

I bought a hexagonal wooden planter which I think I will grow mint in as I love mint tea. I also bought a big pot and a plum tree but I'm not sure that the plum tree will survive as once I got it home I noticed that the roots were quite far out of the soil and they were dry. there are green leaves on it though so I just gave it loads of watering once I had transplanted it into the pot.

I'll keep going tomorrow and take some pictures.

- 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?.

The only thing people have said is that the garden is massive and that they didn't realise that it is so big.The part that I'm doing is not that easy to see from the house so when people go around the corner they are surprised to see it. I like to think that it looks bigger because I have cleared so much rubbish and weeds away!!

My garden is terribly terribly unloved and we are in the midst of planning our, very very budget stricken, revamp. When we first moved in it was tidy, not quite our style but tidy. With a 2 year old that loves to explore and dig herself into EVERYTHING!!! and a dog that loves to dig...especially the stone and pebble areas around the garden it now looks like a stoney wilderness. If money was no object we'd have decking around the garden with lanterns and a lovely table and chairs set at the bottom in our sun trap and a little swing set for Olivia, with lots of flowers, in undiggable plant pots, around the garden. It doesn't sound that flash, but it's child friendly, dog friendly and sometimes going back to basics is the best way forward. It will be a while until we can afford this plan so right now I'm neatening it up by replacing some pebbles, getting some new flower pots and flowers and making sure the grass is perfectly cut.

If anyone has any ideas for affordable garden tricks, it would be greatly appreciated, as truthfully, I am below beginner level when it comes to gardening lol

Here is a picture attached of our original garden picture from when we moved in...I daren't even put up a picture of it currently hahaha

We won?t be properly finished now either, but at least aren't so ill, if pretty drained.
It started raining at four, but quickly became clear it was going to be torrential and continuous, so covered as much as we could and decided the only sensible thing we could do was go buy a gazebo to keep the worst of things dry enough to work on, especially those needing painting still.

Headed to Edmonton B+Q and losing quite a bit of time to do it, but means justified the ends we thought. Very large, well-stocked store, but staff who dealt with us were pretty neutral. They did help, but apart from check out, only when really prompted to, and when told I wasn?t local so telling me they were near x, wasn?t getting me there, but it is London so?

Found and grabbed gazebo, went to pay. Queues were quite bad. Turned out tills were malfunctioning and having to be manually overridden. We were stuck for a long time, which lead to a lot of queue jumping, and staff chose to process those people anyway even though the queue was saying quite loudly by now, that they?d jumped.

I know that one?s quite a hard call for staff, and I wasn?t expecting them to be the ?front line? over it, but they could have supported the rest of the queue?s vocal protests better. By just passively operating the till regardless they just encouraged more people to behave badly.

They did open more tills just as we got to the head of the queue.

When ours automatically malfunctioned, the staff member did come and reset and put it through for me as efficiently as they could in the circumstances. I commented that it was the first B+Q I?d been to, were staff didn?t haver name badges. (There was no response) We definitely caught them all on a bad shift.

Got back, pulled everything out, no instructions, but numbered parts, so went to set it up in torrential rain. We should have counted everything before starting but were in a hurry. Got the frame halfway built, before discovering parts missing despite a sealed box.

Couldn?t get an internet signal in the storm, so called store for opening times, and to ask if they?d put replacement behind customer services desk as we were running behind. 1st, answer was 9pm, great, we could make that.
Second one was a bit more effort, yes we know there are plenty left but we will be cutting it fine, and in a rush please could they do this?

Eventually agreed, but it was hard work. Headed out soaked to the skin, into awful traffic and arrived at ten to nine, to discover they'd shut at eight!
Totally wasted half the second to last day, grrrr. About to get ds up and have another go.
Good luck everyone working to the line.

DH's plans to paint rest of walls today have been thwarted. Torrential deluge. Forecast says to clear in the afternoon- we'll see...

Has Anyone Commented on the Transformation?

I showed a few of my pics to my friends on Friday night. They all thought it looked much better, though to be fair, any improvement would have looked much better than the hardcore, concrete carport base we'd had previously. Next door neighbour was also dragged in. He made all the right comments too.

Looks like lots of us won't be finished! We've decided to add a new playhouse from our own money, which won't arrive till Thursday, so we'll also have a bare patch where it will be going.

Right, off out to get planting, patio cleaning etc, have a fun last day!

Very impressed with all the hard core decking and paths etc!

Oh my goodness, my eyes ! We bought a pot of Ronseal red cedar fence paint from B&Q on the way home from a family party yesterday. I was expected this deep dark red colour...Red Cedar Fence Paint

We got it home and painted a patch on the fence and it was so bright orange but everyone said it would darken as it dried. This morning I went out to check the patch and it is still bright orange :(

We can't afford to buy another colour and I doubt we can swap it on the basis that it is too bright, so we are stuck with it....I'm trying to see the silver lining, in that it will certainly will give some colour to the garden and we can repaint next year (not with red cedar)

This morning I am waiting for either Asda or Aldi to open locally so I can pop out and buy some more compost. My friends popped over last night to help me plant the pots up and we went through 2 x 40 litre bags and 8 x 20 litre bags of compost and I still have a big planter and several bedding plants left to pot up !

I found out last night that in the middle of summer, Tesco is now selling off the gardening stuff and selling school uniforms. I got their last compost bags off their sales aisle !

DH has nearly finished the playhouse. Plants have been mainly planted and I have swept up the entire garden. I still have some pressure washing to do, plant a few plants and paint the fence with vile orange paint

DH is going to finish off a patch of repaving, fix three trellises to our existing fences and build planter stand thingy (with 50 screws!)

Hope everyone's last days go well and I look forward to seeing the pictures later :)

Morning gardeners.
Doing it - what a horrendous day you had yesterday. That would have pushed me right over the edge.
You've done brilliantly so far and I think most of us are in the situation where its going to be an ongoing project / work in progress type thing.
That's the thing about gardens - they keep on developing - there is really no end .
Our final tada! will lack grass and a few other jobs that can't be completed until autumn. It is not the right time to plant trees really.
Plus the weather has been extraordinary- extreme heat and huge thunderstorms, not the standard 20 degree slightly grey July were used to.
Everyone on here has worked so hard and I'm seriously impressed.
Just wanted to say well done really

Babies - do take ott back! (Mutter Trades Descriptions, online publicity etc if they are difficult). To be fair, B&Q staff have bn very understanding when we ve returned our paint (3 times!!!). They must have this all the time. If you exchange, take a piece of wood to stain instpre - or ask them to do it explaining previous problem

I just went on to the field notes app to add my photos and videos and it says the deadline is tomorrow at 5pm.

I have been seriously neglecting this thread. Need to be on pc to upload pictures and just not had the time. Between the garden itself and 2 out of 3 children injuring themselves (not in the garden) along the way necessitating emergency dentists and stitches I've got way behind on updating you all.
I'm on my phone just now but will have a proper look and update later.
Sorry been neglecting you all

That's gorgeous Luce, I love the pond area :)

Done as much as I can for now. My new allotment will be an ongoing project. I need to fill up 2 of the planters with compost but everything else is ready to plant up if not done already. I have mint, apples, strawberries, raspberries and courgettes so far.