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

No, Newcastle. Oh well, tomorrow's another day. And I'm having a G&T while looking at the B&Q website once more.

Oh Roma how depressing. You poor thing

I still have the full money left as I still was unable to find any of the specific plants I wanted today. I was also told that the 10 bags of pebbles I want to buy was not enough for a bulk delivery. So well have to hoof them into the car a few at a time.
Really b and q could do better. !!!

Perhaps they should look at the grocery delivery model and copy that for smaller deliveries. I'd pay for that tbh. Especially if it meant getting plants and paint delivered too.
Pictures of today's work to follow .

New gate

No it isn't, bugger, I will have to wait til dh is off the laptop.

That's the outside frame.

Cremola, how much did you spend? I was told that if you spend £100 they deliver for a charge. If you spend £250 its free delivery. We had allsorts on ours. Gate fittings, woodstain, screws...

This is the fence after the algae treatment, all of the green algae disappeared in 24 hours - amazing stuff!

And here it is after a coat of fence paint, looks so much better.

"We regret that we are unable to deliver to Northern Ireland, Scottish Islands, Isle of Man, Isle of Scilly, Jersey, Guernsey and BFPO (British Forces Post Office) addresses."

I live in NI.
Pissed on from a great height as usual

What do you think of this?

Used the rocks we found when digging over the ground to make a wee wall around the flower bed.

Still got the longest bit to do tomorrow.

Moved the holly tree from a front garden, just hope it survives the move.

It's interesting how the service in B&Q varies, I hope they pick up some improvements from this exercise, and also recognise the staff in the good shops & reward their good service.

It's the little things, like 2 separate staff members asking if I needed a basket when I was struggling with fence paint & lawn treatment, or when I've taken the twins in (sprawled out on a flatbed trolley on top of the many bags of gravel) joking that there's no refund on those particular items, or asking which aisle I got them from as the lady serving quite fancied some for herself. They've all just made me feel really welcome, so even without the voucher they'd be my first choice for DIY stuff.

Today I've painted most of the fence, just a little bit left to do, so I'm already thinking about the next job. Next on the list for me is to find a trellis or two, and untangle the wisteria from the fence so I can train it along the trellis, as it's a bit of a tangled mess at the moment.

Once I've bought trellis(es), and 2 planters, I think I'm free to choose plants after that, the bit I'm really looking forward to

Creamola oh no, how frustrating! How about hiring a man with a van to fetch everything & deliver it for you? Might cost a bit but would save the suspension on your car, I always worry about putting gravel, play sand etc into the car as it's so heavy.

Terra I love those rocks to make a wall, you know rocks like that cost a fortune if you'd needed to buy them!

I didn't know that ophelia just hope I've got enough to do the longest part.

I can really see the garden taking shape now, didnt get any planting done other than the holly tree, so will do that tomorrow evening.

Will spend the day turning over the rest of the ground and levelling it, will take Wednesday off as quite honestly my house is a tip, spent so much time in the garden that the house has been abandoned.

Terra, same here. It was dh's day off today and usually we do a proper clean up, but instead we've been outside and the house has slid. Still, the dust won't go anywhere. I love those rocks btw.

Ophelia, I hope so too. Ours (shrewsbury) was so good, I was really impressed. The materials were pricier than other places I've looked, but the staff were so helpful and knowledgable.

Dh has done the first coat of woodstain. Its very pale but looks nice. My joints are buggered now though and I have a splitting headache, so tomorrow I may have to take it easy.

So jealous! In this great weather I would love a little garden. We share one with 7 other flats. Sometime ago (I'm think about 30 years ago). It was paved and concreted over. Weeds have taken over. Hard to hang up laundry because insects crawl off the roge weeds. DP tries to fight them (the weeds) down but they are determined! Was just thinking today we need to try to get the neigburs to chip in to do something about it.

I am impressed by the algae remover, does it work on the concrete fence panels do you know? I haven't achieved much today, I started digging and came across an ants nest so have hopefully got rid of that I think I need to spend a few evenings out there and a final shopping trip on Thursday. I really like the Coburg table and chairs set, I am trying to justify it, I keep going and sitting on it whilst I am in B&Q, I'd need to put money to my balance though and other things keep cropping up, like having to buy food, petrol, the boring things.

I really like stone wall, we have found few pebbles whilst digging out the beds, I bought them years ago to stop the weeds growing, that really didn't work the pebbles were just lost. DD has lovingly washed and dried them and most of them look near new.

Terra, I got some Velcro garden tape to attach my climbing plants to the trellis, it seems to be working really well, fastens securely without damaging it and it's green so blends in well.

I keep going out with jugs of water for the new plants, I'd like them to settle in fast and grow! We also have got some weed and feed for the grass which it desperately needs but we are waiting until the end for that.

Velcro garden tape, will have a look for for that on Thursday, thanks.

Who knows their stuff regarding plants? Would you mind having a look at the previous pic of my new raised flower bed and telling me how to make it look fabulous :)

I've planted my all of my raspberry canes from B&Q now. I'm afraid B&Q might be very disappointed with my result as the area will look mo like an allotment rather than a garden. I didn't make any claims to make it look good though but I have created a good plot for growing stuff. Still some more planting and tidying to do though :)

Building the frame.

weed control fabric down

The finished frame

Almost done.

We put screws between the boards to allow for drainage.

DHs head was burning

final screws

and finished article. Need to put the 2nd coat on now.

Also need to make a decision about the other side. It's so small, but I really want to grow things.

Need to tidy up fence, fit gate and tidy the raspberry and blackberry bushes today.