I have a 4 sq metre wildlife pond in my garden (in west-central France) which gives me hours of time-wasting pleasure ('What is this life, if full of care...'). I find that I have to clear the pond of blanket weed regularly throughout the summer, especially if we've had a sunny spell, of which we have had a few anyway this year. I use the corner of a (plastic, to avoid potential damage to the liner) upturned leaf rake and gently lift off small amounts of surface weed - never go deep, for fear of bringing up wildlife - examine it in any case for tadpoles etc, and then squeeze out the handful, letting the water and its microscopic life back into the pond. The blanket weed goes onto the compost heap.
I had a fabulous experience the other day. I couldn't understand why one particular frog (one of the 'green' varieties) was so fascinated by what I was doing, and why, when I moved to the 'beach' area, he moved towards me. Then I remembered how they seem to love the rain. So I squeezed the water on to his back - how he appeared to enjoy it! And what a thrilling interaction for me!