"davek" wrote in message
...

And remember a pond can be drown-proof. You can fill it with stones
to just below water-level, and nearly all pond-life will be perfectly
happy. As the little one gets bigger, you can take stones out and
make room for fish.

Too right. So sad every time we hear of a kiddie being drowned in a garden
pond. Another method is to fix steel grillwork just below the water
surface. A child could stand on it but not fall through., so you could
have all the benefits of a fishpond without the hazard.
DaveK.

Thanks Dave and Mike. I like the idea but I will be nervous about having a
pond until she's a good bit older even though they can be reasonably well
child proofed. I want to be able to sit on a summer's afternoon with a g 'n'
t in the shade as she hares around on the lawn chasing the cat without
worrying about hearing (or worse, not hearing) a splash!
I hadn't thought about sub-surface grillwork... wouldn't that take a lot of
cleaning to stop it getting choked with algae?
Thanks again to all in urg for the helpful comments.
cheers
dan