Building regulations say that a sphere of 100mm shouldn't fit through gaps in safety rails. Something like B283 rebar mesh would do it as the grid size is 200mmx100mm using 6mm bar. It would be strong enough to support a child and they can't get their head through. Should be about £50 for a standard 2.4m x 4.8m sheet.
1Runnybeak!, "the smaller the MESS"!!!!When our youngest ws a year old we moved into a garden with a pond, glass fibre job, not awfully big or deep, Hubby took it out straight away, when she was older, 5 or 6 I think, we put that one back, used the dug out soil to raise the soil level, put another one higher up, making a waterfall. The Hospital I was then nursing at, there were families living on site building the M23 motorway, a little boy of 18 months fell into a ditch, it was a rural village, he drowned in just 2 inches of water, his parents rushed him into the Hospital, which didnt have an ED, he was rushed to the theatre, but had been starved of oxygen, he was very brain damaged, couldnt talk,sit stand anything, he was in the kids ward for several years, till they moved away and he went with them, he just made noises like a wounded animal, heartbreaking.Kids are fascinated by ponds and water. I caughter our border collie in ours when she was a puppy, its about 4 feet high above ground and the youngest grandkid is 7, loves to feed the fish, there is a chicken wire cover, wooden surround made by Huby to stop the birds getting the fish
Whilst I agree a safety mesh or fence would be the most practical immediate solution a long term solution is to teach the children to swim. I took Possum to swimming classes as soon as she was 3 months old and had all her first jabs because I knew we would be making a pond for drainage in our garden which had been cow pasture for centuries and was boggy in the dip.
The first thing she learned about having confidence in water was to roll over face up and float.
She never went near our large pond because it wasn't blue and we got the paddling pool out on warm sunny days.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast. "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
I can remember my grandmother telling me about some neighbours who owned the local pub whose child was drowned in an old wooden barrel that the dart boards were put to soak in. May not be true of course !
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where do I buy that?
"You don't stop gardening because you get old, you get old because you stop gardening." - The Hampshire Hog
The first thing she learned about having confidence in water was to roll over face up and float.
She never went near our large pond because it wasn't blue and we got the paddling pool out on warm sunny days.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw