Hello! I'm putting in two small ponds in my front-yard landscaping and half way through this project, I suddenly became terrified of a child falling in it. One is about 9'x7' and 1.5' deep with a small waterfall going into a shallow stream that is about 15' long. The stream empties into a second pond that is 6'x4' in size and 2.5' deep pond. The water is then pumped back to a fountain in the first pond. This is all in my front yard landscaping in a residential neighborhood. Its pretty much all ground level maybe raising a couple feet higher at the top end. I don't know if my fears are irrational, but I'm wondering what people with these small ponds do to reduce the risk of this happening. I'm not so worried about my own toddler because I'm confident we can teach him the danger, plus he's never outside unless we are. I'm worried more about an unsupervised neighbor-child, particularly when we are not home. The second pond is my biggest concern because it is right by the driveway only a foot or two higher. I intend to place plants and rocks around it, but that will not stop a curious child. I do have some shelves for plants, but that does not give me comfort because they may not always figure out how to get out. I looked into an alarm, but what if I'm not home? Anyway, can anyone offer advice on this? I started with incredible excitement building landscaping I always wanted and now I'm dreading that I'm building a death-trap. Thanks for any tips.
Small Landscape Ponds and Children
- Thread starter JetService
- Start date
Your fears are perfectly rational; in fact I think you are a pretty smart person for thinking ahead, before the pond is finished. 
I have never lived in a area where little kids roam around, so I do not have much experience with this problem. However, is there anyway you can put up a little fence around the pond, or do something to make it higher or farther back?
You might just have to keep it as is, and when you are away from the home for an extended period, put a net over the parts of the pond that a child might "explore" (example: the part near your driveway).
Other than that, the responsibility lies with the parents of these children. We all have fears of "what if". A friend of mine frequently worries about hitting a little kid because where his driveway is, there is 4 big pine trees blocking most (if not all) of the view to the street.
Good luck, and maybe someone else has some more ideas!
I have never lived in a area where little kids roam around, so I do not have much experience with this problem. However, is there anyway you can put up a little fence around the pond, or do something to make it higher or farther back?
You might just have to keep it as is, and when you are away from the home for an extended period, put a net over the parts of the pond that a child might "explore" (example: the part near your driveway).
Other than that, the responsibility lies with the parents of these children. We all have fears of "what if". A friend of mine frequently worries about hitting a little kid because where his driveway is, there is 4 big pine trees blocking most (if not all) of the view to the street.
Good luck, and maybe someone else has some more ideas!
Did you check your local ordinances before you planned your ponds? In some areas, the 2.5' deep pond might be required to meet the same safety standards as a swimmming pool. Better to find out if there are any legal restrictions before you get too far into the project.
Both ponds are deep enough for a toddler to drown in, so you have reason to be concerned. I'd strongly suggest securely fencing your ponds, regardless of whether or not such fencing is required legally in your area. Safe is better than sorry!
Re: Re: Small Landscape Ponds and Children
Dave
I was going to ask the same thing. I was going to put my 300g pond in my front yard, but I found out that if it is deeper than 2' that I had to treat it as a swimming pool and follow them laws (6' fence). Also, if something happened I would have been held legally liable. So I suggest you get in touch with the city to check your laws.
Dave
Thanks everyone. Before I started, I had checked with our association by-laws which either comply with local ord. or are more strict. At 18", its not considered a pool, which is good, because both pools and fences are banned in front yards per by-laws. But this means I cannot fence it even for safety sake. A few options I thought of was to somehow making the depth very shallow. I've already dug the hole, lined it and have the coping stones around it. To make it more shallow now, I could place large stones or even a load of river rock in it. This would then rule out plants and fish, but that's much better than a child getting hurt. Another option might be mesh or wire just under the surface with cuts for plants, but I'm not aware of a way to do this so it is strong enough to hold the weight of a child. Does anyone know if this is possible? Thanks again.
The only thing I can add to this is that if the child is old enough to potentially be off on his/her own, and can walk around then I would suspect he/she wouldn't drown in such shallow water.
If that did happen, and I am sure it has before, that would be horrible... but as I say, any kid old enough to wander around on their own should be able to stay out of the small pond. (lets hope)
If that did happen, and I am sure it has before, that would be horrible... but as I say, any kid old enough to wander around on their own should be able to stay out of the small pond. (lets hope)
Using large rocks and gravel to make the pond more shallow would rule out fish (at least as permanent residents; you could keep small ones and move them indoors for the winter if you liked), but it needn't rule out plants. There are a lot of attractive marginal plants, such as rushes and irises, which prefer to be rooted in shallow waters, and floating plants would work well in such a pond, too. For the marginal plants, you'd just need to create some reasonably-sized holes between the stones to allow room for the plants' root systems. Pop the plants into the hole, fill in with soil, and cover with some gravel - it would look great!
The problem doesn't lie with the kids who are old enough to wander around on their own; it lies with the ones who AREN'T old enough to do so but who somehow manage to slip away from Mom and Dad. (Think of a two-year old who wanders out of the house when a parent is distracted for a few minutes, or who gets up in the middle of the night, climbs out of her crib, and manages to get out of the house and go off exploring while everyone's asleep...)Originally posted by aquariumfishguy
The only thing I can add to this is that if the child is old enough to potentially be off on his/her own, and can walk around then I would suspect he/she wouldn't drown in such shallow water.
If that did happen, and I am sure it has before, that would be horrible... but as I say, any kid old enough to wander around on their own should be able to stay out of the small pond. (lets hope)
The chances of an unsupervised toddler finding JetService's pond and drowning in it are small, but not zero - and if it happened, JetService would find himself in serious legal jeopardy. Since he can't fence the pond because of his association's bylaws, he needs to think of other ways to make it fairly "toddler-safe" just in case.
Personally, I do not know many 2 year olds who wander around outside alone... but as I say, I do not live in an area where there are tons of kids. Furthermore, I live on a road where kids would be run over if they were alone.
I understand what you are saying, good points too... but there is a chance for everything, however I doubt you'd be in legal trouble considering how shallow the water will be, and under the circumstances. Still, check your local zoning laws and the like...
Why? If it is not considered as a pool, and he can't put up a fence then how would it be his problem if by some chance a kid drowned in the water? Could you be in legal trouble if someone drowned with his or her head in a birdbath?
I understand what you are saying, good points too... but there is a chance for everything, however I doubt you'd be in legal trouble considering how shallow the water will be, and under the circumstances. Still, check your local zoning laws and the like...
Simple: the pond may well be viewed as an "attractive nuisance." See, most people DON'T have ponds in their front yards; it's not a typical landscaping feature for that part of a residential property. Because it's in a front yard, it will be easily seen by the public. And think of how the finished pond will look: a splashing waterfall, colorful flowers blooming on the water surface, pretty fish darting around in the water... If an accident did happen, the plaintiff's legal argument would be that this highly visible landscaping feature is obviously going to hold an above-average level of attraction for a small child, who will be unable to comprehend the risks of drowning. JetService should have realized that and secured the pond; if it's not possible for him to secure it because the homeowners' association restrictions prohibit fencing the front yard, then he shouldn't have installed such a potentially dangerous water feature in his front yard in the first place (since he has no way to keep curious and vulnerable children away from it). By building the pond in such a visible location, he's added a feature that a resonable person would realize might attract young children onto his property; he therefore bears some responsibility for their resulting injuries or deaths if he fails to take appropriate measures to keep them out of it.
That would depend entirely on the parents of the child. Certainly some people might be able to keep their sense of perspective and realize their child's death was an accident - but there are plenty of people who would deal with their own feelings of grief and failure by lashing out at JetService. "Why didn't I keep Jason out of that pond?" morphs into "Why didn't that neighbor keep my kid out of his pond? HE'S the one who's negligence lured Jason to his death! If he hadn't build that pond, my son would still be alive!" And then it's off to find a lawyer, and JetService is facing a lawsuit.
And remember - in the end, it doesn't matter whether the parents of the dead/injured child win or lose the lawsuit; either way, defending himself against the suit will still cost JetService a lot of time, stress, and possibly money. Better to reduce the risk of such an occurance as much as possible. Since JetService can't fence the yard to keep unwanted visitors out of the pond, he's better off re-designing the pond to make it less dangerous to really little kids. Unlike the case of a swimming pool, it may not be legally mandated that he do so, but it's prudent.
