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Pond Protection
 | | With the cold weather that all parts of the country are likely to experience over the coming weeks, it is time again to remind you who have them to keep an eye on your pond and water features to ensure they come to no harm. By now all the autumn maintenance should have been completed - including removal of decaying leaves and other vegetation and maintenance of any pumps and filters. If you have neglected these jobs, make sure they are done now. If you netted your pond to keep out falling autumn leaves, it is a good idea to leave the netting in place to catch any remaining debris. If your garden is visited by birds, such as herons, it will also prevent them attacking your fish at a time when they have less cover to hide under. With the falling temperatures, life in the pond slows down and fish will no longer need feeding. They should be able to find enough natural food during mild spells and if you continue to add feed they may not take it and it will simply build up and begin to contaminate the water. In cold weather the warmest part of the pond is near the bottom, and the temperature rarely becomes cold enough to kill hardy fish. Problems are more likely to occur if the surface of the water freezes over,preventing oxygen entering the water and waste gases escaping. Fortunately, this is easily prevented by taking simple precautions, the easiest of which is to float a ball on the surface of the water to ensure a small area remains ice free. Alternatives range from planks of wood or pieces of polystyrene to floating electric pool heaters. If the pond does actually freeze over,don not be tempted to break the ice, as it seems that the shock waves produce can stun or even kill fish. Instead, simply melt a hole in the ice by standing a pan of hot water on it. Owners of concrete ponds should special care to ensure that the entire surface of the pond does not freeze over as the pressure exerted by the ice as it expands can cause the concrete to crack damaging the pond structure. |
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Starting up after winter
 Start feeding fish again once the weather warms up and the fish start swimming about more actively. Take care not to overfeed, as fish are often slow to start eating and too much food can make the water foul. Keep grass around the edge of the pond cut back. if it grows into the pond, it makes the water too rich which can cause it to turn dark and oily-looking. Leaves left in the pond over the winter can also make the water unwholesome. A half water change is the answer and the fish can stay put while you do it. Plants overwintered in a bucket in the shed or garage can now be put back into the pond. A boost with water plant feed pellets will start them off. Lift and divide established pond plants in the margins. Treat them like perennials, dividing with a pair of forks or a knife and replanting the young, healthy parts. |
Pond Maintainence
 Clear the surface of your pond, scooping out any leaves and other debris that may have fallen in. Keep it clear by covering the pool with some mesh or netting as fallen leaves are particularly harmful to fish and can even poison them if left. Remove your underwater pump and give it a good clean. Check the filter and replace if necessary. From now on through the winter it is a matter of choice. Some people put the pump on for a short time once a week just to keep it in running order. I leave mine running right through till spring. Marginal plants may need attention and this is the perfect time for taking them out dividing and replanting. There may be plants that haven’t done particularly well, so these can be removed and new plans can be made for putting in new ones in spring. As well as giving the waterside plants attention, submerged ones also need to be sorted through. Remove any leaves in poor condition, divide those that have grown too large for their space and repot where necessary. Always use specialised pond compost. With winter on its way, a good trick to help stop your pond freezing over is to float a plastic ball or two on the surface to keep air holes open. Never use a hammer or anything heavy to smash the ice on a pond as the concussion can kill your fish. |
Pond Care
 As the weather hopefully starts to improve, it's a good idea to keep an eye on your garden pond. In hot weather, fish can start to suffer, and may been seen gasping at the surface, species sensitive to low oxygen levels such as orfe, are particularly vulnerable. This is because the surface of the pond normally acts like a lung, taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide. But during hot spells, especially heavy, thundery weather, this process may slow down or stop altogether. Carbon dioxide Is then unable to escape from the pond, and as it builds up the fish become distressed, and mouth at the surface as if gasping for air. The answer isn't as you might think, to add more oxygen plants. At night, these would give off carbon dioxide themselves and make the problem even worse. The answer is to remove the carbon dioxide by agitating the surface of the water. If you have a fountain or waterfall, run it 24 hours a day, making sure you top up the pond to keep the pump covered. If not, stir the water with a stick or churn it up with a jet from a hosepipe |
Pond Shrubs
 When thinking of ponds and the various categories of water plants and the way that they fit into the overall scheme of water Gardening, I want you to think about a type of plant that people don’t associate with water gardening - shrubs. This is not about creating a water-borne shrubbery - but if you have a bog garden of any kind, there are some shrubs tolerant of very wet conditions that may be incorporated into the pond layout. Most require acidic conditions but don’t be put off by that as for those of you with neutral or even alkaline soil It's easy enough to make a small self-contained acidic 'pocket' by adding plenty of peat. So what shrubs? Well the bog myrtle, Myrica gale, is top of the list. It's a British native plant but not a well-known one outside its habitat of boggy areas on acidic moorlands. And those are the conditions that it needs to succeed. But provide them, and then plant it, and you will be entranced by the golden catkins that appear in spring on leafless twigs, and by the reddish-green, delightfully scented foliage that follows. It can be grown from seed, doesn’t need staking, is very hardy and doesn’t need pruning. The same virtues apply to another relatively uncommon native, the bog rosemary, Andromeda polifolia, a dwarf, creeping shrub with small, pink, bell-shaped flowers. it takes its common name from its neatly rolled, rosemary-like leaves. The third shrub is not one but several, all in the genus vaccinium. It’s a big and valuable genus that needs no real introduction to someone with acidic soil, and embraces a large number of species grown for their fruit (blueberries, cranberries and huckleberries among others) as well as foliage shrubs and ground cover species. Some are undeniably dull, but there are others that make valuable subjects for an acidic bog garden. I suggest especially that you take a close look at the following four. Vaccinium vitis-idaea, the cowberry is evergreen, slow-growing, creeping, up to 30cm (1ft) tall and has white flowers with a pink tinge in late summer followed by edible red fruits. Vaccinium delavayi is a lovely evergreen, neat shrub up to 30cm (1ft) tall with small clusters of cream-white flowers in late summer and red-purple fruits. Vaccinium glaucoalbum is an evergreen, compact shrub, up to 1m (3ft 3in) tall, with white flowers in early summer and then black fruit. It is very attractive but rather less hardy than the other recommendations. And finally, Vaccinium nummularia, another evergreen, many-branched shrub, up to about 45cm (18in) tall with pretty pink flowers in spring, and black edible fruit. |
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