It is a simple and unavoidable truth that there is an inherent risk in having a pond when children are likely to be around. Drowning is one of the most common forms of accidental death in youngsters and this can happen both worryingly quickly and in a surprisingly small volume of water. As a pond owner, you need to consider whether this is a risk that is relevant to your own situation and if so, how to manage this.

The most effective way to protect children from the pond (or vice versa) is to create a physical barrier such as fence or wall or possibly another method that will stop easy access. The downside to this approach is that it may be very difficult due to the size or design of garden or, even if practical to achieve, the end result may be quite uncomplimentary to the garden design.

A common approach to ensuring safety without restricting access to the pond is to restrict access to the water within the pond. This can quite easily be done by using mesh. To install mesh for this purpose, it is essential that the mesh is strong enough and well supported enough to hold a child’s weight. A further requirement is to ensure that the mesh is securely anchored so that no little explorers can venture underneath.

It still pays to be vigilant wherever youngsters are around water but some simple steps should help to avoid disasters.

A wildlife pond will have some necessary features that may not necessarily be considered in creating an ornamental fish pond.

A wildlife pond probably benefits from having a more natural shape to the edge rather than a perfect angular shape so feel free to choose a natural contouring design that could possibly compliment an existing garden feature.

As most pond wildlife lives in the shallows of the water it is an absolute must that at least one edge is a gently sloping side where birds and frogs can wade in comfortably. The gradually varying depths of the pond also provide the extra benefits of varying planting depths and an easier escape route for any unfortunate wildlife , or even worse, children.

The best construction technique for a wildlife pond is to use a flexible pond liner. This will give the freedom of unrestricted design for the sloping beach effect. It will also enable you to lay some of the top soil removed in pond creation on top of the liner prior to filling with water. This will enable planting directly into the bottom of the pond without the use of pots.

It is also necessary to consider the environment surrounding the pond. Creatures such as frogs like shaded areas with a marshy feel to them which can be easily created around the pond providing effective planting is utilised.

British ponds are disappearing fast! As a result of this loss, your humble garden pond is potentially a key asset in maintaining part of our wildlife diversity. Even though your pond may not have been installed in response to altruistic tendencies there will be many benefits to wildlife visitors on a very small, to a much larger scale.

Historically Britain had a significantly large number of acres of ponds with natural land features collecting water. Agricultural ponds have existed for hundreds of years to both provide drinking water and potentially irrigation water. Village ponds have been a central resource for drinking water. Some of the biggest threats to these ponds have been land reclamation for many reasons, the stagnation of ponds that are no longer used and in some cases the poisoning of ponds through industrial or agricultural chemical use.

As a result of these losses, which are unlikely to be reversed, the pond inhabitants of Britain are adapting to the modern day environment and finding their way through necessity to humble garden ponds. The type of wildlife that migrates to your pond will vary depending on the type of environment you have created. It is for exactly this reason that many water gardeners choose to create a pond with wildlife in mind. Some of the more fortunate owners will even be able to create multiple ponds so that the differing requirements of their fish and the local wildlife can be met with different environments.

When designing a new pond there are many factors to consider. Some of the thoughts at the forefront of your mind will probably relate to the fish, plants and water features you are hoping to enjoy. There are a number of issues that need to be considered beyond these desires and some of these may be beyond the obvious practical decisions such as which liner to use.

When designing the pond it is important for most of us to work in a real space. This may involve being in the garden with bits of string and a tape measure but this will be time well spent. It is possible to create a perfect design purely on paper, or possibly a computer, but generally, people who achieve success with this approach are often skilled or experienced designers. It can prove extremely frustrating to have to compromise plans because your paper measurements and assumptions about space just don’t stack up in real life. These challenges will prove particularly frustrating once you have committed money which turns out to be wasted.

Some of the issues to consider are proximity to a water supply and proximity to a power supply. If you have trees in the garden, are you happy to put up with leaves falling in the pond? If so, can the pond be sighted upwind of the prevailing wind direction? Do you have poisonous trees? Where will you install waterfalls and other features. A further important decision is what approach you will have to pond safety. It is impossible to make a pond totally risk free but when starting from scratch you will be able to consider incorporating sensible features into your design. This may avoid making less desirable compromises later.

Designing a pond should be a fun experience, be it a simple water garden or an ornate Koi pond. It does, however, pay to prepare no matter what the intended use.