How to fill in a pond?

[babydays]

We have a small pond (about 2 to 2.5 meters diameter) that we want to fill in and make part of the lawn.

Most of the lawn is bumpy so we're not looking for perfection - as in a golf green smooth- but something that doesn't stand out too much as 'reclaimed' land!

My husband has already punctured the plastic bottom of the pond to let out some water, and has thrown in lots of soil. We have lots of extra soil in the garden - is it just a matter of filling it with soil and then throwing grass seeds on top? Or is there something else we should be doing?

Advice welcome!

 

[mathepac]

Personally, the first thing I would do would be to take out the plastic liner and then start filling it with soil.

Fill the remaining hole with spare soil until it stands proud of the adjacent garden to allow for settlement. Repeat until it is pretty much level with the adjacent area, then seed.

You don't say how deep the pond was, but you might want to consider throwing rocks, stones or rubble into the hole before filling with soil to allow for decent drainage.

 

[Carpenter]

If the pond was particularly deep (say more than 2 feet or 600mm) I'd be inclined to throw some broken stone into the pit first, this will improve drainage. Removing the pond liner first though is a definite must; leaving this in place will impair the free draining characteristics of an soil you use to fill the hole and could result in waterlogging or ponding!