Tell B&Q about your unloved garden - £150 giftcard to be won NOW CLOSED

[KatieBMumsnet]

As you may have seen already, we're working with B&Q, who so far have helped 20 MNers revamp their unloved gardens - soon you'll be able to check out the video of their revamps. MNers have also been posting their before and after pics of gardens they've transformed here so do check out this thread for Mumsnetter garden makeovers!

Now, we'd love to hear from other MNers who might have an unloved garden of their own. Do you have a lawn that's more of a jungle? A window box that's a little bit weathered? Or a patio that's seen better days?

Tell us what makes your garden so unloved for a chance to win a £150 giftcard from B&Q. What do you want to change about it? Maybe you'd like to put down some decking or just get some new plants? What has stopped you from changing your garden?

Everyone who shares their unloved garden stories here will be entered into a prize draw to win a £150 B&Q giftcard.

Please note that any comments you post here may appear on the B&Q pages on Mumsnet and potentially elsewhere.

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw
MNHQ

My poor garden is in a sorry state. I moved here 5 years ago and was full of enthusiasm. I got my friend's son in to take down 3 trees which were preventing any light to get into the garden/house and ended up with a wood pile that was 3m round and bout 5ft high for 3 years. I shoddily built a raised veg garden, had 1 year of veg and since then the local cats seem to have used it as a loo and its developed a wonderful crop of hay. The wood pile was finally removed last summer. I had put up a playhouse from ebay for my son. Something happened. I dont know what. The door fell off and now nettles and brambles have moved in and I can even take it down. There is a big bramble patch climbing up the front of the house, and again at the back - Ive lost 2 chairs and a table in there somewhere. 2 months ago I tried to mow the lawn and the mower blew up.....
The main problem is that I work at my other half's parents farm All gods hours. And I never seem to have any time off. As a result their farm is looking better than it has in years, but I am living in bramble hell.

Our patio was put in by my PIL when the house was bought, brand new for my GPIL.

More than 25 years later, it's old, dated and after years and years of sustained ant work - really rather wonky too. We'd love to change it but it's one of those jobs that is just too expensive for the small amount of disposable income we have left every month while we wait for our youngest child to go to school so that I can get a job again. It looks awful - it's one of those red and cream slab job that were so beloved of the 80's and it's riddled with weeds but we're stuck with it for now

My dream would be to dig the lot up, treat all of the ants nests with nematodes and then put down some decking at a higher level so that I don't have to worry about DD falling down the big drop anymore. I'd shape it to make more of the lawn while giving us a better spot for the garden table. I might even add some lights for the Summer evenings.

We have moved into a new rental property recently. All we have done in the garden so far is kill off the weeds and the grass! DS is 10 months old and walking, and at the moment, it's not really baby friendly for him. We would also love to grow things at the back, fruit and veg, but have no idea how to go about it!

We moved into our new house over winter so there wasn't much we could do outside. We have managed to lay some grass (the rolls from B&Q) in some parts in time for our lbs first birthday party which has taken really well but now the rest of it looks really nasty! A big hedge that's in a very random place! Although the cats love it we do not! Our front and back gardens are very uneven and don't even start me on the state of the drives with some stones some very wonky and cracked paving and some holes!! A lovely overhaul is needed to make it safer and nicer for our lb to play and everyone to enjoy our BBQing area a bit more! :o)

we've just moved into our new home, when we first saw out terrace garden it was paved in the middle with flowers round the edges. nothing spectacular but we could do something with it. there was a 4 week gap between the old owners moving out and us moving in. when we moved in we discovered that one of our lovely new neighbours had broken the gate and thrown an entire house worth of carpets and underlay into our garden.
it was so heavy and drenched from the rain we had to cut it up with a Stanley knife bit at a time and hire a trailer to move it all to the tip. it took us hours. we can now finally start again with our garden. which now consists of pavement and squashed plants all around the edges thanks to the carpet.

we are hoping to get some nice flowers round the edge, some nice garden furniture and decking....and a new lock for the gate lol

our garden is just a plain rectangle, part decking and the rest lawn. I haven't really done any gardening but I would love to add some flowers in pots and hanging baskets to add colour and interest. I'm really nervous and not sure where to begin, I keep meaning to try but can't really justify the expense at the minute. I love seeing other people's flowers and hanging baskets though, it really lifts my mood, so I think it would make so much difference to our rather boring garden.

Gawd, where to begin!
We moved into our new home last Wednesday, and inherited 'the grand project', with 'potential'.
Basically, we have beautiful gardens - but sadly they have been neglected since the previous owner became bedridden more than six years ago.
Somewhere hidden in the undergrowth is the wonderful gardens that used to be opened to the public - we just need to dig, and dig deep to find them and nurture them back into gardens to be proud of.

My garden is unsuitable for my 15 month who loves outdoors, the patio is unsafe, uneven and a disaster, he would fall and hurt himself. The grass is uneven my 4 year old cant have the trampoline he wants. My fence is in need of a seriously good paint makeover.

Flowers in my garden are non existent

Our balcony is being replaced this week, and we would love to make it look all gorgeous when the new one goes up! We spent yesterday removing the broken bamboo screening; the build up of long-exhausted compost and dead plants in the corners; the rather knackered table and chairs; and the few remaining healthy plants! Mind you, I say 'healthy', they definitely need re-potting and some new nutritious compost to feast on! Once this new balcony goes up, we are going to be rather busy...

We moved into a beautifully matured garden last year - but its a bit daunting to maintain! Lots of shrubs, ponds, trees etc. We're not green fingered, so everything is now starting to look decidedly overgrown and neglected.
I'd love some pointers as to what to do with each of the shrubs and plants, and some ideas on how to replace those that require lots of maintenance with some that are easier to look after.

Urban girl
New mum
Lacking green fingers
Owner of neglected garden
Vegetable patch wanted
Entertaining space needed
Dangerous areas dealt with [have got a baby now after all!]

Garden benches without the rot
A water feature twinkling
Raised beds with ferns on top
Dreams made real with a little pot luck
Edible herb garden can't forget that!
Nor the sad looking gazebo at the back...

My garden is unloved because it's mainly used by children and dogs, and work means we don't always get stuff done out there when it needs it

I would like to paint my fences, weed all of the paving, plant things that will come back every year or look good year round, reseed my lawn and put in new borders along one side. Some trees need cutting back and some huge weeds have taken over one corner. I would love to feel proud to sit in my garden. It's a lovely size and has long of potential really.

I also have lots of pots to fill with colourful plants and would love hanging baskets and solar lights.

We moved into our house 10 months ago, and one of the big attractions was the huge garden. We thought it would be great for the children (we have four under the age of 6) and it has been. They have been out come rain or shine, and have been digging, trampolining, playing football etc. We thought we'd take our time to get a feel for the garden. The 'well-stocked borders' seemed so neat and tidy in the Autumn, and they bloomed into life in Spring, and we've watched this riot of colour happening around us without a clue what to do. I've just logged on to Mumsnet for the first time in ages with a view to posting on the gardening boards, because we have no idea how to deal with all the plants, shrubs, flowers, trees. What do you cut down/back/remove? We don't even know which bits are weeds and which bits are flowers?!! We went on holiday recently and saw lots of inspiration - I think we'd like more areas dedicated to vegetable growing. We could have more herbs and plants like lavender... A definite area for the children's trampoline and other equipment, and then there is my husband's skateboard ramp (don't ask!!). The patio is old, so we could update that. We just don't have so much time with a 9 month old, a 2 year old, a four year old and a six year old, but our second will start school in September and our third starts pre-school after Christmas, so maybe there is hope!!

Our front garden was laid to gravel stones by the owner just before we moved in. This was meant to be "low maintenance", but there is nothing low maintenance about weeding stones. Unless you like pouring a gallon of poisonous weedkiller into your yard every few weeks. The stones are also starting to slip off their black plastic groundsheet through vibration, earth settling, etc, so we will have to top them up at some point or the front yard will look patchy. We have very stubborn dandelions out front that have turned into dandelion bushes; despite my husband digging them up with a shovel, they were back within a week.

Family have suggested sticking large pots onto the stones and growing either bright flowers or vegetables. I would prefer to just lay it all to lawn. The backyard is lawn - it gets fluffy every once in awhile, but then DH mows it and weedwhacks, looks great again in an hour.

We also have a driveway that was laid using the gravel and two strips of patio slabs. These are getting loose after two years of use. I would rather do a brick lock-block driveway, which would be easier to shovel in snow and probably more stable throughout the year.

The previous owner of our house did nothing to his garden. When we moved in there was a Weeping Willow less than 10 metres from the house, which was much taller than our house. It took over the whole garden and only weeds and brambley types were able to flourish.We've had it cut down now but the tree stump remains at 3 or 4 feet tall because we can't get a stump grinder down the steps due to the crazy height of them. I'm less than 5ft and I struggle to climb them!
If I could sort our garden, I would first rejig the steps so that anyone other than a giant can use them without the need for rock climbing equipment. Then I would dig up the tree stump so I could have an actual square of grass.

Gosh, where to begin! The lawn needs levelling as its very uneven. I put my foot down and told DH he'll have to wait to do the lawn as I'm making the most of the garden this summer on Maternity leave.
Other than that the borders need sorting. I want 2 rather than 3 edges of flowerbeds so we'll have room for a slide or something for DS. We don't have the space otherwise.
Finally we have some rather large bushes in the flowerbeds that need pruning. DH lopped one off at the bottom, leaving a 3 inch stump, and hasn't touched the others. I'm no gardener, but that's not what I had in mind when he strode off cheerfully saying "Off to do some pruning dear!" two months ago.
So yes, I'd love to sort out our garden.

I don't know if this will count but ...
We moved house a few weeks ago and the garden has signs of previously being loved but the vendor admitted she has just let it go so it is very overgrown, as well as very big! There is a patch of lawn, tarmac going in 4 different directions right through the middle of it, an overgrown patio, a veg plot full of weeds, some collapsed fencing in places and a gappy hedge in other places.

I've spent the last few weeks cutting back as much as possible on my own but there is a huge compost heap that is now 3 times bigger - I'm talking 2m high and at least 5m wide! There is a patch of woodland that has been added to the garden but is full of overgrown roses, brambles, stinging nettles and I'm pretty sure there's at least one wasps nest in the ground next to an empty pond and fountain. My dc's are desperate to have the fountain going but I would like a child safe water feature that doesn't need electricity to run.

The house and garden has a lot of history and I am really looking forward to taming it but it is a huge job to do alone, and I am currently registering as a childminder so need to focus on childproofing a small section of it. I'm resisting the urge to hire a man with a digger to clear and turf the rest of it.

People always comment on the size of our garden ( it's not huge, just long!) but it's too big for me. The lady before us had very green fingers and I really need to simplify everything..... And get rid of a million dandelions!

we loved our garden when we moved in, beautiful lawn, lovely shrubs & different areas.
Then our boys came along & they have loved our garden, its been a football pitch, a campsite, a fort, a battlefield, an assault course, a playground, et etc.
Now the boys are a little older the grass is battle scarred the shrubs overgrown or down trodden.
Our shed is bulging.

We would love to love our garden again we just need a little help to get us started. I have willing and able labour (the ones that messed up the garden) I just need a few pennies to get us going!

Our garden has been at the bottom of our long DIY to-do list since we moved in nine years ago. We go into garden centres, are intimidated by the choice of plants and our lack of confidence about what to do with them, and walk out empty handed again. Vouchers would encourage us to take a few planting gambles and fill the bare beds with colour.

We moved in about 3 years ago and are gradually trying to get it to a family friendly garden. We just never get chance to have a good few days sorting it out! It hadn't been looked after for years. Its such a bonus to have for the children, and we've had such great weather we've spent pretty much every day out there for the past couple of months, but it could be so much nicer. I'd love to be able to feel proud of the garden, invite friends for barbecues and playdates. One day....!

Ooh I started a thread about my unloved garden the other day!
We are very lucky to have a big garden but it has been so neglected its untrue. When we moved in there must have been 8 greenhouses (totally out self here) all smashed up, glass everywhere, no grass, about 10000 margarine tubs and the biggest most godawful shed you've ever seen. Practically falling down.
So, the greenhouses got pulled down, tubs cleared, most of glass cleared (still have to be careful with dd in garden). The shed is due to be torn down shortly. We managed to sow grass relatively well.
DP did a bit of a boob and used weed and feed a bit too generously and a lot of grass died.

The plan now is to have a smaller shed at the back of the garden with a chicken run and a vegetable patch.

Would love love love to win a we could do so much to get our dream garden going! I would love dd to grow up helping out with chickens and growing her own veg.

I posted on the original thread about why our garden us unloved (lawn that is more weeds than grass, overgrown shrubs, filthy patio).

Since then we've bought some new patio furniture which makes it look a lot better, but we'd still live to tackle it properly.

Two things hold us back, money and time.

We moved into our house about three years ago. The house had been rented out for years so both the front and back gardens were pretty neglected. The front garden is completely overgrown and had become an outside toilet for the local cats whilst the back garden was full of used tea lights, empty beer bottles, bindweed and overgrown bushes. We've managed to wrestle control over half of the back garden but the arrival of two children and the unpredictable weather have hampered our efforts. We've lost quite a few perennials we planted due to the harsh winter weather and plants we've replanted didn't survive the erratic summer we've had so far.

We've been a bit disheartened by it all but if we won the gift card it would motivate us to have another re-stock of the plants we've lost and focus on tidying the rest of the garden to make it as low maintenance as possible so it doesn't get back into the same state.