Planting around pond & crap soil

[hotcookie]

We've recently (sadly) filled in a large pond and replaced it with a small pond which will hopefully keep the wildlife happy.
Unfortunately the people who did it have made it so the slope means the soil runs off into the pond so it's completely murky and as the soil seems like total clay (they said they had used good topsoil but the photos beg to differ) I'm not convinced it will be a great environment for anything, so need to empty and clean it out before the frogs come back (ie ASAP as I found a couple copulating today while working in the garden 😝)
Do you think rocks around the edge would help with the run off? I'm planning on planting up soon, wild flowers and then some fruit bushes and ground cover plants below the pond. Or lawn edgings but they would look crap I think?
Also-would you just dig over the planting area and top with topsoil or should I dig in a couple of bags of sand to help with the quality?

[teapotter]

Rocks around the edge would help, but better to lift the liner edge to create a lip then hide it with rocks. We had a pond in a sunken area and redirected the water to a bog garden by adjusting the edges of the liner (test with a hose). The bog garden was next to the pond at the lowest side (obviously) and allowed the water to drain into the soil slowly rather than straight into the pond. It was separated from the pond by the liner. We planted it with marginal pond plants and the wildlife loved it.

The only urgent thing is to redirect the water from the pond. Then watch where it ends up, you can plant the bog in spring (if it ever comes).

[woodencoffeetable]

my parent's pond is similar.
what they have done is made a slope on one end of the pond with large pebbles so that wildlife can get out again.
turf until the edge of pond and leave that unmown.

[ErrolTheDragon]

A bog garden and/or improving the drainage above the pond sounds sensible.Maybe a shingly gravel edge?
I'd have thought that the muddy run off problem would also be alleviated by ground cover planting of some sort.

[hotcookie]

The hope was I could plant the bed below the pond with some fruit bushes and wildflowers/native flowers around the edge rather than just turf it or have a bog garden so it could be a part of our border. It's a couple metres long so I don't want to lose it
I'll try and make a little lip, although I have been in touch with the people who did the pond to see if they can help with the drainage issues in the filled in area (and the soil quality)

[teapotter]

The bog garden could be as small as a foot wide and planted with native flowers- just a puddle area to catch heavy rain and stop the pond runoff. It would also catch any flooding from the pond and stop it drowning your fruit bushes in heavy rain.

Turf or other well rooted plants could equally be a very narrow strip- just enough to stop bare soil from being washed into the water. You’ll also get more wildlife if you have foliage at the pond edge rather than just summer flowers and rocks, and it can look pretty.

Native wildflowers like iris, marsh marigold, watermint, meadowsweet etc would be good plants to grow.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Frogs need damp foliage near the edge of the pond for shelter as they come out. Elsewhere in the garden, my wild strawberries are always full of baby frogs, although strawberries aren't very good at ground stabilisation.

[hotcookie]

Thanks. I was planning on putting some irises around the edge so I'll do that where the run off is. One edge does border the lawn so I'll make sure I get that up to it. I didn't really want the rocks round it, just thought they'd help a bit. Would things like hardy geraniums have tough enough roots to hold the soil? I have tons of them elsewhere I can transplant.

Do you think pipe insulation foam under the edge of the liner would be enough to make a lip?

[ErrolTheDragon]

Would things like hardy geraniums have tough enough roots to hold the soil?

I'd have thought so.

[hotcookie]

To be honest the biggest problem isn't where there is a boggy bit below the pond. It's just generally really badly drained where they have filled in the existing pond, with puddles of water sitting on top of the soil not where there is run off.
I'm not sure if I need to dig in manure & put new top soil down or sand to improve the drainage? I'm happy to plant a big garden but the main problem isn't the pond overflowing it's the poor drainage in the soil I think.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Did they remove the pond liner when they filled in the pond, or did they simply shovel loads of soil in? maybe they filled it in with the idea of making a bog garden and therefore left the liner in place?

[hotcookie]

No, they took out the old liner (recycled some to make the new one)
They say they used loads of top quality drainage stuff underneath it, and best top soil but they aren't responding to me now 😔