What to do with old brick pond?

[Littlepond]

We moved house last year and I’m just starting to think abut the garden. It needs a lot of work (and I’ll likely pay someone to do most of it!) but I’m gathering ideas.

There is an old brick pond. About 1mx2m and about a metre high. We emptied it when we moved in. It’s currently full of mud and garden waste (waiting for my green bin delivery!)

I don’t want a pond as I have 4 cats... is there anything useful or fun I could do with it? I could just get rid but then there will be a hole in my patio 😂

My parents had something similar and filled it in with soil to use as a flowerbed- it makes quite a nice feature now!

You could break up the base and turn it into a planter.

That said, all 6 of my cats love our ponds!

Don't rule out a pond just because of cats if you would otherwise like one, mine love drinking out of ponds. Having a pond is one of the best things you can do to encourage wildlife into your garden. Otherwise, make drainage holes at the base in the sides and fill with compost and plant in it.

I’d be worried my cats would fall in!!

Just make sure there’s some way they can climb out and they’ll be fine. Some of mine have fallen in but other than pissing them off slightly it hasn’t done them any harm.

no idea what the connection is between cats and ponds?
They really don't fall in, and mine drinks out of our pond all the time.
And you do know that cats are god swimmers right?

If they did fall in, they would get out, cats are quite clever at that, we had one who used to jump in the bath and climb out.
Same cat also used to run across the garden, straight across the very large pond. His momentum kept him going for the first half, then he sank and swam the rest and climbed out. Weird cat.

Fair enough if you don't want it, but it could be a nice water feature.

if not, raised bed, plant a largish perennial in the middle, our raised bed has a hardy fuschia - beautiful.
Some bulbs round the edge and then when bulbs are over add some summer bedding plants.
Or, if it is close to the house, make it a herb garden

They'll only fall in once, probably only the back half of their body, and they'll get out. They're good swimmers. At one time we had 4 ponds and 6 cats.

They now specialise in luring neighbours' dogs through the hedge into our garden, where they leap the adjacent pond in one bound and turn to watch the surprised dog fall straight in.