Topic: Childproof Pond

[Anthony]

Mrs Anthony has recently given birth to our second child (Jake 5 weeks on Friday) and hence I now need to start thinking about what to do with my 4 foot hole in the garden full of water ::)

Short of filling the thing in, has anyone any ideas about childproofing?

Thanks

[WASSISNAME]

IMHO no pond is childproof, You could consider filling it with sand as a childs sandpit rather than waste the digging

[fluffygrue]

Well, aside from the obvious 'never letting them out of your sight' thing.. you can get very sturdy metal grating to put over the top - my mum was a registered childminder and the council was fine with this being safe.

And you can get something similar (but more expensive) that sits just below the waterline so keeps the pond looking pretty, though it still means there's an inch or two of potential danger. Otherwise you could have a bog garden?

Melanie

[Cat]

I have to make my pond childproof soon and would welcome any other suggestions anyone has (other than filling it in)  :P

Thanks

[Margaret]

Hiya Tony.

No i haven't died.......still here,still plaguing you!!

Congrats on your son.However don't you dare fill it in!!After all the hard work you put in!! I have found 3 websites for you

http://www.pondsafety.com  and http://www.pondcreations.co.uk  and http://www.agriframes.co.uk

Hope they prove useful.i might even think about something for mine.i am getting sick of the netting.

[slippy fly]

Speaking from my experience I would fill the pond in.I know its stating to obvious and you probaly don't want to but think of your children.I had a 10ft x 5ft pond and when my 1st child came along we used a metal grid to cover the pond but we could never relax when he was in the garden.So when our 2nd child arrived I decided to fill it in and looking back a year later it was the right thing to do.
You can always empty it and fill it with sand then go back to it being a pond when they are older.Its not worth the risk.

[Anthony]

Wondered where this had got to?  Cheers for the advice all.  And thanks for the kind words Margaret - I don't really want to fill the pond in after all the hard work and money that has gone into it so I've now comitioned the wife's brother (who owns his own engineering firm) to come up with some type of "semi" permenant grid to cover both sections.

We reckon the boy :) will be walking within about the next eight months at the latest so I'll probably have till Christmas to get it sorted.

Cheers

Anthony