Filling in Pond

Blinkz · 2 Jul 2018 at 01:12

Hey folks, I moved into a new place at the end of last year and am now turning my attention to the garden.

The main issue was that there was a fairly large unwanted pond. I’ve managed to rehome the fish, drain the pond and remove all the linings etc.

Now what is the best way to fill it? I guess lots of hardcore and top it off with topsoil, but being a fairly basic DIYer I’m not sure of the details. For example is there any specific size of hardcore pieces that I should aim for? Or is it a matter of just fill it with anything I can find? For example I’ve some stones and bricks lying around which I can use but they will barely make a dent in the hole, plus would I need to break the bricks up?

I’ve a feeling I’m overthinking it but don’t want to fill it and then next year have it all settle and be left with a dent in the garden!

Not sure of the exact plan for the garden yet but will probably cover the filled area with half lawn and half patio.

Any advice or suggestions welcome!

BongoHunter · 2 Jul 2018 at 01:40

You could ignore the problem and put decking over it...

DampCat · 2 Jul 2018 at 09:02

Fill the pond with whatever you can find. Start big, get smaller. But it will settle. Nothing you can do about that sadly.

sovietspybob · 2 Jul 2018 at 09:21

After you've filled it leave it a good 12+ months before you do anything as it will settle, you can speed it up by watering the ground as that helps it settle faster.

With our self build most of our garden was filled in with all the soil we dug out from doing the foundations and it settled a good 10-15cm and is quite undulating, i didn't do anything for the first year then slowly started to fill in the low bits with spare top soil.

Blinkz · 2 Jul 2018 at 10:30

Thanks for the quick replies. I’ve done some measuring and maths this morning and it’s not quite as big as I thought. It’s area is 6.7m2 with a volume of 3.1m3. Assuming 6” of top soil then I’ll need around 4/5tons of scalpings and 2 ish tons of soil.

The main issue is there isn’t any easy access to the back garden. We’ve a 2.5m wall around it, with another 1/1.5m of bushes above that at the lowest point. I don’t know what the limits of the delivery trucks are, I guess that will be dependant on the company. Any recommendations on companies that supply scalpings and topsoil or should I just stick to somewhere local?

In the meantime I’ll throw in the bricks and stones I have but don’t think it’ll reduce the above requirements by much. I was thinking about hiring a compactor for a day to give it a helping hand to settle? Altho I also don’t plan to fully landscape the garden until next year so I could just leave it.

I was also thinking of putting in a membrane of some sort, I’ve read it can help stabilise the top soil and stop stones from coming to the surface?