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

lissie that's gorgeous, am amazed at how much you've got done! It looks really lovely, so welcoming I bet you can't wait to get out there!

How hard was it to level the ground for the decking? Am still veering between gravel or decking to go under the new playhouse, gravel will be easier, but decking would look smarter.

haughty I love your herb bed, all we've got is two huge thyme plants, everything else has died, although I'll be restocking as part of the makeover, and relocating all herbs to the side of the house where they seem to thrive (the poor, sandy soil there seems to suit them well).

So please with what I found in B&Q today. I found raised bed kits which are about 2m x 1m in softwood for about £17. result!!

- 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've just picked up the stuff I wanted and taken it to the checkout. Yes, I have seen things that were not online.

Haughty - not sure if it d work. Have ditched the fence idea now and I couldn t find a B&Q video tutorial on rendering 2m high exterior walls. Not sure I d be that confident of getting the rendering to stick or of it being a smooth finish.

Have found some cheaper pavers, however (though not from B&Q who were relatively more expensive). I will order my sand and cement from there however. I also need to change the paint colour I bought. Do you think they d exchange it fr a different colour? It s pre mixed so nothing specially made.

It would be good if B&Q could come on and answer some of the questions!

Anyway, I m going back to B&Q on Thursday again. Hopefully, this visit will be less frustrating. Appalled at the wheelchair inaccessibility. Isn't that illegal these days??

Photo upload didn't work. Okay.. Will try again in next post.
DoingItOurselves - thanks for the suggestion. That may work but now after pavers and paint, rethinking how we should spend the money. I think I m going to look at sheds now instead. A shed would at least mask the ugly carport door (all quotes we ve had for its removal and bricking up have come on over a £1000! so that s out of ghe wuestion right now. we do need storage for the bikes which are covered with a tarpaulin atm. if these and kids' toys could be stored in a shed, the yatd might look less cluttered. The walls can be painted a different colour (hoping B & Q will exchange paint tomorrow). I'm not sure about trellising. I like the look of it but we had dome before and I wonder if the climbing plants made it too damp an environment and caused the paint to peel (it was exterior masonry paint though).

Am going to move the old climber today (it ll need a temporary home but I've no idea where. I shall remove the breeze blocks and climber soil so as to clear the yard for paving and repainting the walls. I would love to have them all rerendered but we just can't afford this.

Ophelia, thank you. The paint dried beautifully and the crappy, decrepit fence looks almost new. I'm having a day off today though, helping in school library this afternoon and my mums coming over after school (if anyone can find something wrong, its her )

The levelling was fairly easy. Because of the frame it doesn't need to be perfect and you can always build up, that's what dh did, it was slightly wider than we expected so there was a quite sharp dip.

Open, I saw those raised beds, they look really good!

Roma, you could get a bike shed, they are cheaper than normal sheds iirc.

I ll look at those too lissie but I need to hide most of the ugly carport door so it may need to be higher than that

Roma the law requires ?reasonable adjustments? to be made, and the staff member offering to get things for me comes under that, though in the case of a supposed to be an accessible store there?s a much more reasonable way of achieving it.
Currently anyone?s able to take a business to court if they are breaking the DDA and disabled people aren?t a homogenous group, but I?m in the camp of would like to see this country go down the ?we do things out of common decency, common sense, and mutual goodwill route? not ?because we could get sued if we don?t? route, and of course many improvements are often also of general benefit to all customers, whether or not they?re disabled.

B+Q?s actual policy is:

^Disability and B&Q
In 1998 B&Q started to learn about the needs of disabled people as customers, employees and the local community and understand the barriers to employment and shopping that people with disabilities can sometimes face as part of everyday life.
This led to B&Q launching a disability programme, which includes staff training, customer service, access to our stores and a review of our recruitment and employment policies and practices to ensure accessibility for all.
B&Q is committed to ensuring that our stores, goods and services are accessible for disabled people, and we want to ensure that B&Q is the company of first choice to respond to the spending power of disabled people and provide a welcoming environment that is easy to shop, and enables disabled and older people to find the inspiration and solutions to enjoy and participate in DIY and gardening.^

So hopefully when I visit that store in a few days, they will have remembered that and sorted out their problems and not be making them mine.

There shouldn?t be a problem exchanging the paint for a different colour if it?s unopened, they must be so used to that one.

Lissieloo another one saying that?s lovely. I did think that was going to be a seaside view until I saw the field!

TerraNotSoFirma that?s taking shape nicely. Because of the high level?s of direct sunshine at the moment, I?d be tempted to drape the bush with a piece of light cotton for a few days and feed it?s roots to be sure. I?m not a knowledgeable gardener at all but my small trees and bushes in pots, including variegated holly, suddenly got very scorched leaves and keeling over after I moved them out of their normal shade, and doing that has saved them.

We have so much to do, so I?d better get on with it!

Doing, thank you. I'm with you on the common decency front. tbh, I can't believe the difference between the stores. Shrewsbury is a mini-warehouse, the garden section isn't huge but the builders is massive. But the service we received from the staff was excellent. They really knew their stuff.

This is my before picture up the length of the garden It really is a mess.
Excuse the washing, we are currently potty training a very reluctant ds2 and I have a full load every day of his stuff.
I am still a little undecided if the decking is going to run from the back doorstep or from the edge of the slabs back. If the latter I am giong to build the gap up with breeze blocks and put chips on top.
I am going to see some advice and inspiration from a friend and go from there.

This pick is ds1 and 2 with the decking that arrived this morning.
Just after this picture was taken I looked at them and realised I was one short.
I called the store and got a woman that I remember from customer service desk last week. She barely listened to me, was talking to another member of staff while I was talking to her and was pretty uninterested. It was such a shame when everyone else had been lovely.
She said oh well the boys never said the had anything left on the lorry.
Then she disappeared and said I could get it next week the only deliver to me on a Wednesday.
I explained about the deadline etc. and she seemed incredulous that one deck board made a difference. I didn't get the chance to explain I ordered extra that would not be used for the decking floor but for a matching planter so actually I need all the time i've got in case I screw it up
So she said she'd ask someone else and call me back.
She called back with her bestest phone voice on and said someone would bring it this afternoon.

I'm not sure if she had been told to be nice as the people with these vouchers were rating service as well but she definitely was far nicer than I had seen her last week and our earlier conversation today.

As for the delivery I got a text message last night saying to expect my delivery between 9.30 and 12.30 today and it came just after 10 so very impressed and the guys delivering were great.
Moved their van round the back of my house where there is direct access to the garden and took it right in despite it being marked as to pavement delivery.

Lesson learned: it always takes SO much longer than you thought..
So today, I removed the breezeblock planter and transferred the 7 ft pyracantha into a temporary plastic bucket (had to cut alot if the roots off to do this so hope it survives). It took me forever and I had to manage to lift it up by myself into the bucket whilst keeping the trellis it was attached to upright (I d unscrewed this from the wall). I have many splinters, wrecked nails and pincushion arms from the thorns. Far too hot for this work. Am officially knackered.

Hope this is now the right way up

Here is the pyracantha in its temporary new home

Decidedly unimpressed!

I went in to the store today to order the stuff that I need to make my raised beds. I spoke to a very helpful guy called Aaron, who gave me some genuinely useful advice. I even managed to find a cheaper way of doing some of my plans. So far so good.

He then told me that the store I went do don't do bulk deliveries of building materials, so I would have to go away and place a phone order. He filled out a form with all the codes that I needed. I checked with him that I could use the gift card over the phone, and after asking some of his colleagues he told me that I could.

I then went home and called up the bulk delivery number. I was on hold for ages, before speaking to someone who told me that he could not take my order, but he would take the details of what I wanted and someone would call me back. I explained that I was about to go out to work and that I would not be contactable for the next few hours. He confirmed that I needed to place the order today for a Saturday delivery (so that I can work on my garden this weekend.

I checked with him that I could use my giftcard, and he told me no. I needed to place the order in store! I am currently on hold to the store, but apparently the people that I need to talk to are not currently available.

So bloody frustrating! I have hired a cement mixer for this weekend, so if I can't place the order this evening I may well be out of pocket.

I am going to have to go back to the store to place the order, which means that I will be working until bloody midnight.

Sorted! It was really easy to do once I was back in store and I can have the delivery by Friday. It just seems like a ridiculous system that they try to arrange that you can't place and pay for your order in store.

Roma, what a beautiful plant!

Geeklover, glad you got it sorted, I wonder if they have been told to look for us..

Haughty, glad you got it sorted. It does seem unnecessarily long winded.

Well, my parents have been round. They don't like it. It's too bright. I was really upset but then thought feck 'em, it's not up to them. Tomorrow I am back out there, weeding the bed between the decking and the fence and painting the other fence.

Lissie, bright is good!! It's almost 7pm and I'm still at it. I have some men coming around to quote for some work and I look like a brickie. Have even got a bottle of beer in hand lol.

Haha, its important to look the part! And thank you. They are just being spiteful because we did it ourselves without consulting them.

Does anyone haver a pinterest board for this? Here's mine.

Also found that on youtube you can watch all of Alan Titchmarsh's 'How to be a Gardener' series which has been really encouraging (if a bit large scale). Think it was suggested after one of the videos he did for B&Q.

love your pinterest board, just followed you (am DM)

I was quite impressed with B&Q this evening. I'd reserved online 3 tins of paint. They rang me up to say that they'd only had 2 in stock at the branch I was going to. I thought their system of cross-checking with online reserving and your preferred branch was good - and then to personally phone to let us know the situation was impressive customer service. I'll still collect the two they do have but it helped knowing and pre-empted any frustration.

Morning all. Apologies forst for lack of update pictures, but something is up with my email server.
Dh has been my hero this week and all the grass has been cleared. It is a complete miracle in this heat tbh. The ground is like concrete though. We are shifting the soil from out of the raised beds today and I have been given lots of manure from my friend down the road who keeps horses. We will be digging this through today. ( if we are able)Dh is going to get a couple of saws at B&Q today : this will finally enable us to remove lots of the overhanging tree growth.
keep on keeping on!
Pics soon, but honestly theres nowt but a load of mud to look at really.
We reckon that the prep for planting will take atleast 10 days. Hoping we will be able to do some sort of reveal on 27th. That is the plan