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Talkback: How to maintain a garden pond
I have a new pond built this March 09 I have oxygenators marginals a water lily and a water hawthorne in the deep water but they have not got going yet now I have algea which is very green it is not blanket weed I cant pull it out will putting in barley straw help untill my plants get big enough to cope with excess nitrogen would putting in a pump help although I did want a natural pond to attract frogs etc.
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I have oxygenators and a filter/oxygen pump feeding a little fountain, but can't seem to clear the duckweed short of spending hours with a seive!
I know that this is a very old thread, but I am surprised that no-one has replied to dottiesue above. So if anyone passes by, looking for an answer to her question; yes. Yes yes and yes!
Pond water is perfect for the garden and pot plants.
I have a pond with a water fountain, I noticed the other day that it looks as though there is washing up liquid in it! There isn't though, I wondered if this could be some kind of algae? I will try to get it off the top of the water if I can, not very supple I'm afraid!! ( Me that is, not the water! ).
Just wondered if anyone knew why that might be happening? I have frogs and newts in the pond, I don't want anything to hurt them of course....I also have water Lillie's and water Irises.
Thank you folks.
X
I cant help with the "washing up liquid" problem, I've never had thatbut I was wondering if anyone could tell me if I can start thinning out my oxygenating weed yet. It's a wildlife pond full of young newts and I don't want to upset them. It's Canadian pond weed, a present from a friend when I was starting out (beware of Greeks with gifts etc) and it's very vigorous! I'm sure the newts etc are walking on top of it!
Thanks X
If it's taking over you can pull bits out Carol. It can be a bit too vigorous, especially for a small pond, but it's harder to get it out of a big one. We had frogs mating on top of ours at last house.
Leave the pieces you remove at the side of the pond for a few days so that any resident wildlife can get back in the water. You can put it in your compost bin afterwards if you have one.
Just looked at that previous post and I suspect that it's just the blanket weed starting into growth - right time of year. It 'explodes' as soon as the water starts warming up in spring.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
If your pond isn't too big you could take out some of the weed a bit at a time and put it in a bowl of water and gently remove the baby newts to another bowl and put them back when you've done.
If they still have external gills (feathery bits sticking out) they need to be in water to live. Keep a watch out for other desirables as well, dragonfly larvae etc,
Looks like we all missed Chrissie's question, sorry Chrissie. Water is never pure, there are all sorts of things in it. A fountain stirs it all up and mixes in air and it all froths up.
In the sticks near Peterborough