GARDEN POND - too deep!

[Htb]

Hello
We have acquired a garden from moving into a house. I don’t have an issue with the pond per se however it’s been built quite shoddily. Last year we emptied it, found quite a few fish and newts and frogs. The young kids enjoy this aspect, and we do too. However during this exploration we found the pond to be over 5ft deep, vertical edges and thick at the bottom with sludge. (Enough to snap the net) did our best with this, tried to create a more sloped edge which was difficult.

Anyway, I don’t think I want to get rid of it as it’s interesting (or could be) but how do I make it shallower? I can’t take the risk with young children of it being over 5ft deep and it’s just uneccessary I feel. Yes I can get a net, but the depth causes issues on visibility, amount of water to treat, plants, pond accessories. So I don’t understand why it’s been done. We can’t even get a nice fountain due to this. Any useful tips would be great.

Ideally I don’t want to empty it and remove the liner, can we just fill it to the desired depth by filling with pond gravel? Surely this would be suitable as that’s what most ponds have as a suggested base? If we got a few ton bags?

Thoughts? And also any other advise!

Photo for reference!

Thanks in advance!

 

[j.w]

@Htb
I think that would be way too much gravel and it would cause bacteria to build up and make your pond water bad. People do use gravel but not that much. Maybe someone else has some idea on what you can do. Maybe a fence or a heavy duty metal screen? Not sure a net would be strong enough. Otherwise I think you could only lift the liner and add soil and then put the liner back. Sorry.
Check some of these out: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=me...fc/82/ba/fc82baa8ed01a0433a83c6101108c81d.png

 

[addy1]

Welcome to the forum.

Gravel would work, but like said above, muck will build up.