The only way to manage a pond is to do it and learn by experience. Be sure to understand however, before you begin that any size pond calls for a lot of input. I've had ponds now for nearly 50 years and I dug the present one 30 years years ago, filled the bottom with sand, lined it out with heavy duty plastic and then rendered it with a mortar mix to give me about a 4" (10cms) wall. Over this I then apply two coats of bitumen which makes it safe for fish and other pond life. It also means that the pond walls offer purchase to amphibians which need to get in and out. They're not slippery as is the case with plastic liners which offer very little hand or foot holds. I take the lily out of the pond every 3 years and literally chop it into several pieces, all of which I give away to other interested pond owners and I keep one piece which I weight down and replace in the pond. Do this in early winter - December is a good time. Don't worry, it will regrow and give you flowers in the summer. We have a lot of toads and newts mating in the water, so in February and March I clear away as much of the spawn as possible. It sounds heartless, but they're only eggs and regardless of this cull we still finish up with hundreds of tadpoles. I believe that most of these survive because of the cull. Here's another reason why it's important to clear away some of the spawn ... it is quite normal to find two or three dead female toads at the bottom of the pond or trapped in the weed. They are dead because the males will not get off their backs so they simply can't get to the surface to breathe ... that's nature, I guess. All this is helpful for the fish too as they seem, otherwise, to be stuck in a sort of gluepot. Once the spawn is removed they start swimming around much more as one would expect. We live close to the sea and the pond is near the house and I think it is an off-putting location for Herons and Herring gulls which do not trouble us. Blackback gulls however, are a different matter. They are fearful of nothing and started taking fish 2 years ago. I didn't want a net, so I made up a grid to fit over the pond using bamboo canes from a garden centre. I lashed them together with nylon cord, dropped it over the pond and trimmed the canes to fit. It looks quite neat, allows light to pass straight though to the water and it's easy to lift off and on unlike a net which is a bore when you need to access the pond. Reading through the problems and anxieties which have been expressed, it's my hope that some of this will prove helpful.
