Filling a garden pond hole...

BenDover · 23 February

I've just removed my garden pond saving what little wildlife was still in there (just 5 frogs - re-homed in the local park pond!). I've removed the rigid liner. I now have a hole which is already starting to fill with water seeping in on all sides. I did plan to refill the hole with top soil and I am expecting it to settle so I'll need to keep topping up until that stop. I have a load of pebbles that were spread around the permitter of pond and wondering if I should throw those in the bottom of the ex-pond hole before adding the soil. I have little use for the pebbles otherwise. Is that a good option, or should I just use soil? Despite the water seeping from the sides of the hole, my garden doesn't flood as I'm on a sandy loam, although I do have a soil pan about 2 foot down that extends across the garden which I hit every time I want to plant something large, so wondering if a layer of pebbles might be helpful as a bit of a drain away. Once the ground settles I'm planning to use the area as a new seating area in a remodelled garden, so there won't be anything growing where the old pond was.

philippasmith2 · 23 February

As you aren't going to plant anything in the ex pond area, I would put the pebbles in if you don't have another use for them in mind.
Whatever soil you add will drop over time so the pebbles may save you a bit of work/soil

KT53 · 23 February

You are correct that the soil level will continue to drop for some time. Although the pebbles will reduce the amount of soil you need they may actually increase the amount of time it takes for the soil to stop dropping. I did similar when I filled in our pond, although I used all sorts of bits of stone. The undesired effect of that was creating a lot of voids which the soil didn't initially fill. It was only rain over an extended period, and I mean a few years, that eventually got the soil into all the gaps and the settling stopped. The problem will probably be lessened if it's only pebbles.

DaveGreig · 23 February

Frogs only need a pond to breed so just releasing them into your garden would’ve been fine and they would have got on with their lives. They’d have helped keep the pests down too. Rehoming them may well have put them at risk.

Given your plan it really doesn’t matter what you fill the hole with but if you change your mind in future then anything bulky will be much more difficult to remove than it was to put in.

Fairygirl · 24 February

I'd agree with you @DaveGreig. They [the frogs] would have been perfectly happy just with some general cover, especially for during the day. I have old, broken clay pots in various sites, but lots of general shelter from planting for them, and lots of damp shady areas.
I also agree that it won't really matter what you fill the hole with, but if you want a level surface, and are using soil or turf etc, you may need to wait while levels settle, and keep adding to it. That's where a gravelled surface is easier, so the pebbles [depending on what they are] would be better for the surface.
You may also want to use a quantity of hardcore to get a firmer base, as your soil is fairly sandy, but that can certainly be difficult later on if you change your mind and need to remove it, as @DaveGreig says. Probably much easier than when it's in clay soil though!

BenDover · 25 February

@DaveGreig @Fairygirl

I removed the frogs because at least two of them appeared to be fully gravid and I didn't want to risk them returning to the hole that the pond had been taken out of (it was a rigid pre-moulded pond) and spawning in the hole that was already filling up with water seeping in from the sides. Two of the other frogs that I rescued jumped in hole after I'd taken the pond out so I had to fish those out. I know frogs don't spend all their time in the pond. Removing them and relocating them to a local pond was the best solution I could come up with, especially as my postage sized garden is a very small and there is little else around me in terms of 'natural environments' as three gardens of my neighbours to the sides and back have removed every living thing and laid down plastic 'lawns'.

Thanks for your comments on filling the hole. In the end, I removed every last pebble I could find including wading shin deep in the water of the old pond and pulling them out, along with 3 half house bricks that I still pull out of the ground 24 years after the house was built. I've now filled the hole with 400 litres of top soil. I reckon I need another 250 litres or so, but I'll leave it until it settles a bit.

Filling a garden pond hole...

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