How to fill in a garden pond

neverwalkalone

Hi,

the house we bought has a garden pond and with 2 young children we have obvious safety concerns.

Does anyone know what the best material/method to use to fill in the pond with a view to taking out the material and restoring it to a working pond in a few years. So we do not want to damage the plastic underlay or use material that could become boggy/smelly.

It is about 3 feet deep with a wire mesh supporting stones and these stone are about 1-2 inches above the water line.

We have though about getting a pond guard http://www.pondguardonline.co.uk/html/what_is_it_.html
but would prefer if the garden did not have any water.

blahblah06

sorry for wrong info but anyone know how to put a pond in a garden?

Gandhi

Wouldn't you need to break the plastic underneath to avoid having a home-made swamp every time you get heavy rain? I am going by experiences my friends have had with swimming pools, but as far as I know, just filling it in will just give you a muddier pond. If the water can't soak into the ground, it will just sit there regardless of what kind of fill you would use.

fred funk }{

I would fill it with large stones so the kids cant fall in and they could easily be removed at a later stage. They might end up looking like a nice rockery if you're lucky

eddiej

Hi, if you are going to fill the pond with stones you run the risk of puncturing the lining which defeats the purpose. the handiest method would be to enhance i.e make stronger your metal grid across the pond then if you dont want water in the garden cover it with rocks eh voila. You wil however still collect water in the pond so why not havea very low pump over the rocks the type that just makes the rocks wet and the water will flow back into the pond under the mesh and keep the children safe.

I do agree though ponds and young children need either good supervision till they get older but it is prob handier just to cover it for a while and when they are older open it up and teach them all about water safety.

eddie

noby

I have two small kids, and my parents have a pond. My dad built a fence around the pond high enough so they couldn't climb over (3' or so), which does the trick any time we visit.

blahblah, dig a hole, about 3' wth a shelf around the edge for plants. Line with sand, then pastic, and fill with water. You can bury the edges of the plastic, or make a border of stones cemented down, with the plastic underneath.