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

Another view

And another

Wrong view. Here is another.

We're done! Well, we're done with Phase 1 at least, Phase 2 will be the new playhouse, Phase 3 will be replacing the lawn with posh astroturf, but we won't get that done until at least September.

We even invested in a pressure washer after reading comments on here, so all in all B&Q have done very well out of us, I think we've gone over the voucher by about £250 ish by the time we're finally done (pressure washer, playhouse & playhouse paint.

Here's the patio before

and the patio after: weeded, tidied, pressure washed and the weeds by the conservatory replaced with gravel

the 'flower beds' before

and another 'flower bed' before picture

hmm didn't work, trying again

and now my flower beds after, wisteria trained onto a trellis, some plants moved to better locations, some removed altogether, and everything arranged by colour :-)

and my favourite bit, the before pic of the playground

and the after picture, with the fence de-algaed, painted, some gravel, plants and a bench, and I have an oasis of calm

The only disappointment is that it's tipping it down with rain now, so we can't go out and enjoy our lovely new garden.

I do think this voucher has spurred me on to appreciate my garden again, I used to love gardening before the twins came along, and I'd got out of the habit. I think I've re-found my enthusiasm, and expect my garden to continue to develop, so it's a space we can all enjoy, not just a dumping ground for toys.

Thank you B & Q for helping me rediscover my love of gardening!

We are pretty much done! Need another couple of bags of pev=bbles and a big pot for my wisteria. But hey, pretty much complete.
her is THE BEFORE

and AFTER- cue relaxed, slightly funky reveal music....

sorry

Wow creamola that's an amazing transformation, well done!

from the lane

ophelia yours is just lovely- we both bought wisteria !!

another view: phew.
getting in a hot lavender infused bath.

And The Questions I have yet to answer:
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 had a Dream! lavenders, weedfree cottage garden kind of dream. Lots of inspiration from Pinterest and the lovely book lent by my mum by Geoff Hamilton.
None of this project would have been possible without dh's amazing efforts

• 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?

A curates egg- some good and some bad.
The state of the plants on my first visit was depressing. They were wilted sad or dead. I may not have come back if I had not have had the voucher, and used a garden centre instead; especially for decent plants.
Your phone service is dreadful. You need dedicated phone people to actually help and follow through.
serious lack of staff in general

• 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? No. we had a good idea what we were doing. I really hate diy videos tbh. would prefer a concerted effort spent on providing a better range of stuff and a delivery sercvice for small orders. There is no way to do B&Q without a car.

• If B&Q could do anything more to help you next time you visit, what would it be?

More knowledgeable staff
in gardens

• 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?

Theyre all loving it!Several neighbours have commented positively

With Roma's encouragement I rang up Chorley B&Q and explained that I had bought some shed paint and it was not red but orange and could I please have an exchange for a non-orange shed paint.

Well the first lady I spoke to (who name I didn't get) Nicely told me they would look at the paint and if there was anything wrong with it.

I explained that my issue was the colour didn't match it's name, tin sample, website picture and website section (i.e. it was under RED fence paints not orange.) all lead me to expect a dark red paint not bright orange. She told me that everyone knew it came up an orange and she wasn't sure what she could do ! I pointed out that I didn't know that I am not a fussy woman and if the paint was red, practically any shade would have been ok but I distaste orange.

She kindly passed me on to a lovely manager Linda who agreed to exchange for another shade, to avoid any possibility of the 'orange' issue I bought Ronseal Dark Oak Shed paint this time and I like it. The paint again does not reflect the paint label but it is brown like I expected and I like brown for fencing.

The good news is we managed to get trellis up, planter shelves up and a quarter of the fence painting, before we got rained off.

Guess I should of waited until tomorrow to paint but I wanted to use the weekend as much as possible. So I will post extra pictures when we finish the fence painting too.

Pictures to follow...just getting baby back in bed.

Right to post my after photos. To be honest if this challenge has shown me anything it is that gardening is an ongoing project.

I have plans to re-sand the paving and paint fence posts and panels which time limitations meant could not be completed during this period.

I intend to buy a climbing rose where I have a pot of bedding plants at the moment. I also have my DH on a promise that if I keep my new plants alive for a year, I can replace some of the plastic sunfaded pots which I found hanging around and had donated by my friends, with proper posh pots.

We also need to buy and fit a solar pump to our 'new to me' water feature, which will be out of next payday.

Still I have really enjoy this unloved gardens challenge, even though I had to work so hard shifts tons of rubbish from our garden but the end results are so worth it.

I am spending so much more time out there now in my own garden with real flowers :)

Before Top of our garden AKA the dumping ground

Before Top of our garden AKA the dumping ground 2

Before Top of our garden AKA the dumping ground 3

After the Top section has been cleared, cleaned, mended the paving and the trampoline and shed re-sited on this section.

Look at the back of this photo.