A garden pond can quickly turn into a nightmare - when a child falls into the pond, injures itself or even drowns. Security measures are therefore essential. These can interfere with the optics under certain circumstances, but also save you a lot of trouble in case of doubt. And they protect lives. Fortunately, child safety devices for garden ponds can usually be installed quickly and inexpensively.
problem
Water is a magical attraction for children. They love to play and splash around with it. This of course applies to your own children as well as to those from the neighborhood. A garden pond therefore also poses a risk if you don't have any children yourself. In principle, nobody is obliged to secure their pond in such a way that nobody can fall into it. However, it is a question of responsibility to do it anyway. Quite apart from the fact that a drowned or injured child in the garden causes a lot of hardship and suffering, even without any criminal law relevance. But why can a small, not particularly deep garden pond become a deadly trap for children? The answer: Because especially smaller children fall into it very easily, lose consciousness and then drown despite the shallow depth.
Precautionary measures
There are many ways to make a pond child-proof. the goal is
it either makes access more difficult or impossible or to minimize the risk of stumbling. We want to take a closer look at five different options here. Which measures you ultimately decide on depends on the specific conditions on site and your own requirements. It should always be clear that pond protection usually also has a visual impact. It is therefore also important to keep this impairment as low as possible:Flat bank
It is easiest if you consider the protection of your garden pond at the planning stage. Basically, a pond in the garden can be created in two ways. Either you dig a hole and cover it with a pond liner or you place a prefabricated plastic tub in it. The pond liner variant is the more frequent and usually more sensible solution. Above all, it also offers the option of incorporating a relatively simple but effective protective measure right from the start. As already mentioned, the greatest danger for children is that they stumble on the edge of the pond and then fall into the water. This risk can now be minimized considerably by ensuring that the bank is very flat. A steep bank must be avoided at all costs. The bank should meet the following requirements:
- sloping very slowly towards the middle of the pond
- no abrupt depressions
- free of tripping hazards such as stones or decorative objects
- Placement of smaller, rough natural stones on the edge
A flat bank not only reduces the risk of tripping, but also makes it easier for the child to get out of the pond on their own in case of doubt. This is supported by rough stones on the edge of the bank, on which the child can pull himself out. However, you should be aware that a flat bank always requires more space than a steep bank. The pond must therefore be larger overall. How slowly the bank can drop towards the middle of the pond is ultimately always related to the total area of the pond. Nevertheless, a shallow bank is the safety measure that is the least visually impairing.
Tip: Never use smooth stones or wood to delimit the bank at the edge of the pond. When wet, these elements become very slippery, making it much more difficult to hold on.
fence
The classic for securing ponds of all kinds is certainly a fence. He can reliably ensure that children cannot access the pond. In order for this to really work, however, it should have a height of at least around one meter. It should also be laid out around the entire pond. It makes sense to have a small door that can be locked and that should also be shot down. For the fence construction, plug-in fences made of metal, wood or plastic are recommended. Stability is important. A simple chain link fence is not suitable. It can also make sense to let the fence fall at an angle of 45 degrees towards the pond. As a rule, this creates a distance that makes it virtually impossible for small children to overcome it.
planting
A fence around the garden pond is for many
Certainly not a tempting idea for people, as it counteracts precisely the idyll that one wanted to create with the small body of water. An alternative can be as dense as possible planting with hedges and bushes. Box trees and roses are also perfect for this. The point is simply to create a barrier around the pond that children will find very difficult or impossible to overcome. A planting also has the great advantage that the pond behind here remains largely hidden. It is important, however, that it is created early. Plants simply need a certain amount of time to achieve dense growth and a certain height.Mesh or grid
To prevent children from falling into the pond, a tear-resistant net can be placed over it or over it. at the level of the water. The closer it is to the water, the less noticeable it is. It is attached to the edge of the river, for example by means of tent pegs that are hammered into the ground. A pond cover with a metal grid works similarly to a net. However, it is much more conspicuous, more complex and therefore usually much more expensive. Usually it has to be made individually. A wrought iron grille can, however, also have a very special charm and become an eye-catcher in the garden.
Alarms
So-called warning alarms are now available in specialist shops, which float like small islands on the surface of the pond. As soon as they detect a larger wave movement, such as that triggered by a child falling, they emit a loud, high-pitched alarm sound. Various tolerances can be set, for example to prevent every frog that jumps into the water from triggering an alarm. It is also important that these alarms come to rest very flat on the surface in order to be able to function optimally. And of course such a warning device only makes sense if adults react to it and, in case of doubt, can pull the child out of the pond.