Filling In My Pond

I have had to fence it off this past five years because of grandchildren. It is a mess. wall to wall nettles etc. I have decided to fill it in after the frogs have been rescued of course. My garden gets very very dry in the summer. I have trouble with rhodies and azaelias which I love. Would it be a good idea to puncture the liner but leave it in place then fill it with soil? I don't want a bog garden but an area that won't drain so quickly. Then i can fill it with azaleas and acers. What do you think?

 

Shame you've decided to loose your pond. I s'pose one day my koi pool will be too much for me and will go the same way.
Puncturing the liner isn't the best idea, there'd be enough of the liner left to prevent proper dranage and it could end up wetter than you want. I'd cut it all out with a Stanley knife or at least cut big holes in it. I'd suggest, any shallow rooted plant needs regular watering but won't like being permanantly wet.

I've very sandy soil, we're on the edge of the Mersey valley so the soil is alluvial, was formerly farmland so drains very quickly, never any puddles no matter how much it rains. I've lots of azeleas and several rhodos and don't have any problems. I've recently made the job easier by installing a leaky hose in an elongated "S" shape for these.



and I've now two pop up sprinklers in the lawn that water the grass and these.

 

DH Riley you have a lovely garden. I have been sitting looking at your pics green with envy. Your rhodis are lovely. What a fabulous acer. Mine all died eventually. The trouble with my soil is I live Out in the sticks half way up a mountain. At one time I lived in the town in the valley. The soil there was much better. Mine as well as being dry goes rock hard. Cracks everywhere. Twenty odd years of composting etc has improved the soil but not the way the water drains away. I have carpet under my rhodis which helps if I am away. I have intended putting a leaky hose round my garden but have not got round to it yet. I sprinkle all the time.

What my pond was

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What it has become


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The second barrow of nettles I removed yesterday so at least my view from the kitchen is improved

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A couple of my Rhodis and azaleas

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Hubbyy fenced the pond in so tightly it has been impossible to get near it to work. I look after my grandchildren so they are here all the time. My son has just got married so now doubt there will be more. Safety dictates I need to get rid of it.

 

Love your garden.

I understand you wanting to be rid of your pond if you've grandchildren.
It's said; "Young children can drown in two inches of water."
The problem being that no matter how well you fence water in, kids will find a way to get at it, it's such an attraction.

We didn't let our three grandkids get anywhere near our pool until they could swim and then only when someone was with them. Being five foot deep with sheer sides, there's no way they'd be able to get out if they fell in and if the French window doors were closed, with double glazing we wouldn't have been able to hear them.
So much better to be sure than sorry.

Digressing, talking to our youngest grandchild (she's four) this morning on the phone, she said she was going on a boat this afternoon. Her dad is a member of a rowing club, they live only five hundred yards from the Thames.

She told us that she'd "a red lifejacket with a whistle."

"But I mustn't blow the whistle unless I fall in."

Knowing her.....

 

wiseoldowl I am glad you enjoyed the chat and my wilderness :flag:

DHRiley Sorry for my delay in replying. I was ironing. It's a man's world. :wink: Don't you just love kids? Strangely my two didn't show much interest in what was behind the fence. I think because it had got so overgrown by the time they became aware. I am going to take your advice and cut large pieces of the liner out but not all of it.. I may do it sooner than later. Would the frogs find their own way if the pond gradually dried out do you think? We live very close to a reservoir and Lough Neagh. I thought if I punctured it and let it drain slowly then cut out pieces later I could observe drainage for a while.

 

I'm just wondering at what age its considered safe to let kids get near water.
I realise in the super safe society that we have these days things are very different.

I remember very well playing around the local lake from the age of 7.
And it was two miles from home.

 

All our kids we taught to swim by the time they were about six. Our three grandchildren learned at a similar age. It's not just the problem of falling in the water, it's the possibility of sustaining an injury "on the way in" that may be the fatal cause.

I agree, as a kid I got into all sorts of things. It was a more relaxed society. You could buy all the ingredients to make gunpowder in Boots the chemists and we did!

"'elf 'n' safety" is now a huge industry and those "in it" are for ever finding more reasons to make this more of a nanny state, just to justify their existence.


A few years ago in the golf sectuion of a paper, I read a story about a young environmental health officer visiting Wentworth Golf Club to inspect the catering facilities. Whilst there she happened to look out of a window and noticed the eighteenth green. "Those will have to be fenced off" she said. She was indicating the bunkers.

 

It's a changed world isn't it? I was born and brought up in Paisley near the Coats thread Mill. There was a burn ran near it and from no age we used to play in the shallows of it. God knows what chemicals were dumped in the burn then. It was full of rocks too so a head injury was more than possible. Our parents sent us out thankfully with the admonition to be back for tea. Wouldn't happen now. I know it has to be this way now-a-days but I think kids are missing the adventure of life too. Shame