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Pond

rosieadams07TBCCF2M4rosieadams07TBCCF2M4 Posts: 1
in Wildlife gardening
Preparing to clean pond pre-Winter but water has turned to thick, black, shiny sludge from water-lily oils. How best to clear this suffocating bog and is the stuff any good for anything at all in the way of garden flora? My usual frogs and dragonfly-nymphs need a habitat back for Spring! Please respond asap as having to approach while weather reasonably mild and dry. I am also making the pond which was here when I moved in but very shallow a bit deeper and wider to accommodate the lilies and irises better. 

Posts

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    your Dragonfly nymphs need it now, they are often there for 2 or 3 years, clearing out won't please them


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    We have cleared one of our ponds recently. All the plants that are pulled out are kept to the sides of the pond so that any wildlife can get back into the pond. We don't put the "pulled out" plants on to the compost heaps for at least a week if not more.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    A photo of the pond will help @rosieadams07TBCCF2M4 :)
    A pond that's shallower and gets impacted by other material getting in can certainly become sour. I'm not sure what you mean by water lily oils though.
    I inherited a sludgy, boggy pond at my last house which was basically a run off from the main pond. Once cleared, it was fine, and far more useful to wildlife, but it was really just an area that collected water as it made it's way out of the garden, because it was a spring fed pond rather than an enclosed one. 
    However, there is no perfect time for sorting that out. Collecting the water in the pond and maintaining it in trugs or containers of some kind is the only way, but it would be difficult to safely keep any life currently in the bottom. 
    A slightly deeper pond will certainly be better for water lilies, and any planting which needs a deeper site, although Irises don't need any great depth - they're for the shallower areas in ponds as they're marginals. Having it in a sunnier site is often the solution as many ponds that are sludgy are often in shade, and in the path of trees/shrubs which drop a lot of foliage. If that's kept out [by netting at this time of year] that will also help. If the site isn't ideal, making it bigger/deeper won't really help. 
    All ponds gradually have more 'stuff' in the bottom though. That's normal. The amount of interference needed depends on the planting too - some will need dividing just like any other plant, or they become too invasive. Flag irises are a classic example   :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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