What to do with pond?

scarepanda

We've recently moved into a house which has a pond in the garden. The water is looking pretty manky and the few plants that are in it don't look the healthiest either. Although I think there is one that's starting to regrow.

What's the best way to go about getting it cleaned up and introducing some life back onto it?

Any and all info and advice most welcome!

magicbastarder

Might be lacking oxygenating plants, also could be clogged up with leaves etc.
How deep is it, and how deep is the silt in the bottom?

upupup

scarepanda wrote: »

We've recently moved into a house which has a pond in the garden. The water is looking pretty manky and the few plants that are in it don't look the healthiest either. Although I think there is one that's starting to regrow.

What's the best way to go about getting it cleaned up and introducing some life back onto it?

Any and all info and advice most welcome!

Most pond plants die off over the winter and don't look too good so they may all burst into life over the next few weeks.
if the water is green you can pump out 20% and refill with fresh water,this can be done once a week if its bad.

scarepanda

Hi guys!

Thanks for your replies

There seems to be about a foot of water in the pond at the moment with 4-6 inches to the top of the pond. There's a layer of loose green stuff on the bottom that seems to be about 2 inches deep.

I was thinking that the plants I see alive are growing back. Do Lilly's die off as well?

Cheers

blackbox

scarepanda wrote: »

Hi guys!

Thanks for your replies

There seems to be about a foot of water in the pond at the moment with 4-6 inches to the top of the pond. There's a layer of loose green stuff on the bottom that seems to be about 2 inches deep.

I was thinking that the plants I see alive are growing back. Do Lilly's die off as well?

Cheers

Give it a few weeks for plants to get going, but that pond is too shallow to ever be much of a success. Your best hope is to have plants (liliies etc.) covering the surface as much as possible to prevent the water from going totally green.

scarepanda

Thanks for your reply

I was hoping to use the pond as a centre piece of a wildlife area I have planned, so hopefully it will come to life for this purpose. There's a bit of work involved though to achieve this as the area is surrounded with gravel and large evergreen trees that I will be taking out.

I have a couple of photos that I will upload later when I'm at the laptop.

magicbastarder

ah, i've seen people make a success of ponds that deep. it's all about achieving the right balance; i would not be much good at advising you on how to do that - i've managed to do it with my pond, but i'm not sure exactly what it was that i did right...

SnowyMuckish

Different plants have different roles in ponds some are oxygenators, it might be a help to plant some. When life gets back to normal there’s a shop/website called ‘pond hobby’ that’s useful but closed for now.

Also very useful is https://www.wildaboutgardens.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-08/Wild%20About%20Gardens%20Big%20or%20Small%20Ponds%20for%20all%20booklet.pdf

Discodog

I would carefully check for wildlife especially frog spawn. Then empty the pond ensuring that anything alive is put into buckets, bowls full of pond water - ideally save some of the pond water.

Give the empty pond a clean out then refill from the tap unless you have rainwater available. Then leave it for a few hours before you replace the plants & any bugs etc. I would also carefully add a little of the bottom mud.

Make sure that their is easy access from the land to water & vice versa for birds, amphibians etc.