Find out how MNers are getting on with their Homebase Garden Goals challenge NOW CLOSED

[AmeliaMumsnet]

This feedback thread is for the 10 MNers taking part in Homebase’s Garden Goals challenge. Each MNer is undertaking a particular task to create their dream garden; either making an edible garden, a patio garden, adding some colour, encouraging wildlife or creating a garden for entertaining.

Each tester was given a £100 Homebase voucher and is undertaking a ‘one hour’, a ‘half a day’ and a ‘one day’ task to transform their gardens by following Homebase’s Garden Goals tips and instructions. They will leave weekly updates on their progress on this thread.

Here’s what Homebase has to say: “We have teamed up with Anne-Marie Powell to launch our Garden Goals challenge to help families get their outside spaces ready for summer. We want to encourage those of all gardening abilities to complete a garden project; whether that’s creating an edible garden, creating a patio garden, adding colour to your garden, encouraging wildlife to your garden or creating a garden for entertaining.”

Watch this short video to find out more:

We also tasked 5 MN bloggers with the same Garden Goals challenges, check out how they got on below:

Create an edible garden challenge before and after by Attachment Mummy
Create a garden for entertaining challenge before and after by A Strong Coffee
Add colour to your garden challenge before and after by ET Speaks From Home
Create a wildlife garden challenge before and after by Confessions of a Crummy Mummy
Create a patio garden challenge before and after by Le Coin De Mel

Testers

Throughout the 8 weeks when posting about your progress with your garden, please think about and answer the below:

• Which Garden Goal did you take on and why did you want to undertake this particular challenge? What was your garden like before you started to work on it?
• How did you find your in store experience at Homebase? Were the staff friendly and helpful?
• How useful did you find Homebase’s ‘how to guides’?
• How did you find using the shopping lists provided? Did you find everything you needed in store to complete your Garden Goal?
• Do you feel like you achieved your Garden Goal?
• After completing your Garden Goal, do you feel more confident in gardening and would you like to take on more challenges throughout your home and garden?

Each week we’d love to get an update on how you are progressing with your Garden Goal tasks and to see lots of lovely pictures. Please also share your photos on your social media channels using #GardenGoals and tagging @ Mumsnet on Instagram and @ MumsnetInsight on twitter.

Everyone who leaves their feedback on this thread as required will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 Homebase voucher.

Thanks and happy gardening!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

Wow! Well done to everyone, have loved reading this thread. All the projects look fantastic!

We moved into our rented house 18 months ago and the garden was a jungle albeit with a fish pond in place full of weeds. We pulled out most of them and found four fish in it, we added our own fish stock which we had moved from the other house and have since extended the pond to give them more space and add a waterfall.

We also put in a wildlife pond at the back of the garden. We have six resident newts, this morning I counted 7 frogs of varying sizes, and we have let the grass and wildflowers grow wild round that area to encourage bees.

We have two resident grasssnakes living behind the shed and a family of hedgehogs are seen most nights.

Our fish pond is also full of tadpoles, can't wait until they turn into froglets!

For those with ponds, we have a slightly shallower end which is planted with yellow water iris. The frogs love living and sitting in there, they can hide but also sit half in/half out the water. We have a shelf in the other end and have used flat stones to build steps to let stuff climb in and out.

Looking forward to the next pics gardengirl Glad the herbs stood firm!

Worwax the trampoline is a definite success! I'm not their biggest fan but yours looks great sunken and surrounded by patio and raised beds. i dislike it when they dominate a garden Now you can sit back with a and watch your dc bounce to their heart's content. Have you been on it yet?

chickens what a cool idea! Well done chickenDDs, I bet the birds appreciate your work! I need to choose a few goals for this week - might have to give the instructional video a watch and buy myself a grapefruit...

Tigger you don't do things by half do you! You've made me want a BBQ but I'm home alone this evening sob!
It's fab we're drawing inspiration from each other, I'm giggling at the fat pigeons!

mycatsapirate I love your wildlife pond, thank youfor the pondspiration! I'd love another (wiggly) liner like that, I'm adding it to the list! My frog seems to have moved in full-time I hope some friends join him before long! I've tried to create various different levels using bricks, pebbles and plants so allow things a route in and out. Does your cat (if indeed there is a piratecat) bother the pondlife? Mine is obsessed sigh. I hope the novelty wears off soon...

In other news I noticed loads of bees swarming in the laurel at the end of the garden. I managed to get a good look and was able to google - they are tree bees! The laurel has finished flowering but I discovered the new leaves release a kind of nectar that attracts them. Fortunately they're not considered a threat to our native bees and are good pollinators so they can stay!

I've also been browsing the Mumsnet blogs that are doing the various gardengoals challenges (waves) and the photos people have submitted on the Homebase facebook page Some great inspiration!

Tigger my local Homebase do express delivery of items that are in stock but too big for the car for £10 - just thought I'd mention it as I only found out about it the other day (not well advertised!)

Thank you ginger. They're not my favourite garden accessory either tbh. I'm going to work on adding more plants and colour around that area too.

Wow mycat you've got a mini jungle! I'm so envious of all your wildlife.

Most of my plants are really starting to thrive now apart from my basil which, unfortunately, is determined to die!
This week is half term so I am going to take the kids to the beach and pick some stones. We'll then decorate them as a half hour job and use them to label the herbs.

I need to write up my latest projects but my phone has a habit of losing long posts. I'm going to wait until I'm on the pc later.

It's a gorgeous day in the garden today. I've spotted my first butterfly visitor, a red admiral, perched on the erysimum Bowles Mauves. Tried taking a photo but it flew off every time I got close. Plenty of bees buzzing around too!

I sat outside at dusk one evening and was delighted to see bats swooping down into the garden! Very unexpected.

I was gazing into the pond and noticed a beady eye staring back at me! Not sure if this is the original frog or a new arrival I now have some kind of water lice/ beetles - the pond is definitely evolving!

Frog!

Self seeded wild rose in the hedge. I trained it this year to encourage more flowers. The bees love it.

Homebase climbing rose purchased last year. I can't get enough of the colour! I finally learned the art of 'fan training' this year and it's blooming like mad.

The colours of the flowers in these pictures are stunning!
I am off out to do some weeding in my raised bed before I post a update

Oh that rose is gorgeous! I love a groggy visitor, might consider putting in a pond at some point to encourage some amphibious friends.

Groggy?! Froggy, stupid phone.

We spent a happy couple of hours in the garden today - and we have had breakfast on our new patio which has been LOVELY!

My garden goal was to create a patio garden which is done, but needs some plants to bring it alive. The garden robin is getting very friendly as he gets used to us being there more.

My DD is nine weeks old today and is looking around and seems to be enjoying using our garden more!

I have cleared some pots and cleaned them ready for filling with flowers.

I also pulled up some weeds and tried to cut the privet into a vaguely teardrop shaped construction!

For my whole day challenge I cleared out a existing raised bed.
I weeded it and mixed through some decent compost.
The children then planted some pumpkin seeds at the front. I then added beetroot plug plants.
This was about three weeks ago and I promise to add photos later, but I really need to go and do some weeding first .

My poor garden has been battered in the storm
I have lost 3 sunflowers and my fuchsia has lost pretty much all its flowers.

I did another half day challenge with my sister at the weekend but it ended it disaster! I decided to jetwash the patio, this has probably not been done in many years and was filthy. We ended up covered in mud, so were the walls and my house. Worst of all I managed to flood next doors garden... we thought we found an excellent draining pipe and pushed all the water that way, until next door shouted at us to stop... it wasn't a drain at all... oops.
So we still need to do another clean but I might wait till they're out next time (and be a bit more careful!)

I went to take a photo and a bloody bird had pooed right in the middle of it!
And now it needs another good sweep after the storm but I will post it when I've done it.

So, haven't done much on the playhouse yet due to being away over half term and the storms but did manage to pressure wash it which striped a lot of the old wood stain off which will make sanding it down easier.

I did the half day challenge of pressure washing the decking, although I had done it earlier in the year so it wasn't to much of a job.

The photos are of a little potted flower display I made on the two unused sleepers by the side fence. I bought some compost and the flowers; Lavender (English), Begonia (nonstop joy) and New Guinea Impatiens (mystic) from Homebase. It looks really sweet but I don't know how well it will survive balls and bikes and pixies banging into it! The pixies have been told to avoid them on pain of death but twenty seconds later they crashed into it on their bikes - So much for my voice of authority!

I'm going out there this afternoon but can't decide what to do. The grass has to be cut and I may pressure wash the playhouse again to strip the last of the stain off, or I might start painting the inside... Pressure washing is probably the most sensible option.

Loving all your work! Sadly I wasn't selected for the Homebase project but been doing lots of garden work anyway, particularly since last year & finally sorting out the patio area with composite decking, (I'm completely evangelical about composite now!)

Rue - how tall are those maypole things? I'm obsessed with sweet peas but have struggled to find any obelisks tall enough-ended up making our own

Highly recommend Homebase's conifer cloud trees. I got some red tipped grass there a couple of weeks ago which looks great too & ive kit seen before. Don't use ronseal though, it's pants!

This is the raised bed I have been working on. The beetroot plug plants have come on really well.
No sign of the pumpkins yet. Although i have left a few weeds in it, just incase they are the pumpkins .

The only problem with the fruity bird feeders is that it took one knock by a bird or naughty squirrel and it was tipped over and all the seed on the ground. Also the grapefruit rotted in a few days. I think it would be better to use something that doesn't rot and use lard or something to seal the seed together....or just use the birdfeeders. It was fun for the DDs to make but not that practical.

We have been busy in the garden, planting and weeding. The DDs are loving it and my eldest has got her Gardener badge at brownies since we started this and it was her choice to do this badge! My youngest was only asking yesterday if she could help me in the garden.

This weekend we had dragonflies in the garden which was lovely. As well as the Green Woodpecker which actually feeds from the ground.

We've also put water out near the compost heap and the hedge in the hope of attracting hedgehogs.

Gardens really coming along, been away for a few days and it's all gone crazy!!

Lights in the front garden

I'll add photos in the morning of my second garden goal which was: BUILD A HERB GARDEN.

This was the half a day task and was a really enjoyable one.

We had an old, chipped Belfast sink which had been in the greenhouse when we moved in.

It's been sitting in the garden since last year and I decided to transform it to host some herbs!

We went down to Homebase and chose a few extra herbs - we already had some but added mint, oregano, chives and basil.

Filling the sink with compost, with some stones for drainage at the bottom, this was sited next to the sun deck which is the new 'patio garden' in our long but narrow garden.

It acts almost like a raised bed and will be lovely to have nearby for barbecues. It's a really sunny spot so should host the herbs well.

I also did another quick spruce up with some masonry paint of a rather tatty outhouse which backs into our garden from next door. It has transformed the view from the back garden - I will neaten the edges and perhaps add some flowerpots to the wall for decoration. It was SO easy but really changes the aspect. As you can probably see, this was a late evening fix - my one bit of baby-free time in the day!

gingerkitcat We have four cats (although only one is a pirate). They don't really bother with the wildlife, especially the pond. The fish pond has a net over it and they can't get at it. They don't see anything in the wildlife pond that looks entertaining enough I guess! Our garden has been overrun with baby froglets recently and they haven't even bothered with them!! These are two tubs full DD and I picked up as we were doing some planting and had to avoid stepping on them.

I've also been inspired by some of the posts on here and am now painting all my wooden garden furniture.

Ive been busy doing some jobs in the garden, trying to save our plants and tidy up from the horrendous rain we've had. My basil has completely died and some plants have got wind damage but thankfully most have survived!
Will post some photos later.

Mycatsapirate - wow so may froglets, I bet they're all sitting round singing the frog chorus at night.., "bum, bumbum, Ayeya!". The furniture looks great, love the colours you've chosen.

I'm about half way through painting the playhouse. This week has seen a vomiting bug run through the house, so not as much progress as I wanted but have painted the base and sides. The front is a little more fiddley and needs some repairs which I haven't had the inclination to do last weeks but will crack on this week, hoping the weather holds as its perfect painting weather.