Unless your pond is *huge* (mine is 2,500 litres and not large enough) buy barley straw extract. You can get it easily enough online or at a garden centre.
There is an idea that you can put the barley straw itself into your pond - you can. But all the expert guides I've read say that this wont work (can't remember why - there was a good reason) unless you've a huge pond.
That said you noticed the extract working within 24 hours and repeated applications as prescribed seems to be keeping our pond crystal clear.
I've used watercress frequently in the past. If it gets a bit overgrown you just yank it out. It feeds on the nutrients that the algae and blanketweed like. At my last house we had a very big pond and a smaller one. There was a lot of debris and blanketweed and we used a bale of straw for the big one and watercress for the little one.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Buy a bag of barley straw from and pet shop, then make up your own bales, which is far far cheaper than purchasing ready made ones from a garden centre. Just need a net (buy net of oranges from greengrocer) then stuff loads of barley straw into this, including couple of heavy stones to prevent it floating, and hey presto, your own home made barley bales.
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Barley straw. If you don't know a farmer, they sell it in garden centres.
Or you can buy a liquid made from barley straw. It works really well.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Unless your pond is *huge* (mine is 2,500 litres and not large enough) buy barley straw extract. You can get it easily enough online or at a garden centre.
There is an idea that you can put the barley straw itself into your pond - you can. But all the expert guides I've read say that this wont work (can't remember why - there was a good reason) unless you've a huge pond.
That said you noticed the extract working within 24 hours and repeated applications as prescribed seems to be keeping our pond crystal clear.
I've used watercress frequently in the past. If it gets a bit overgrown you just yank it out. It feeds on the nutrients that the algae and blanketweed like. At my last house we had a very big pond and a smaller one. There was a lot of debris and blanketweed and we used a bale of straw for the big one and watercress for the little one.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
How do you work out out how many litres of water a pond holds please?
I used this calculator http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.antonio/antoniokoi_005.htm
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
iI just get a broom and drag it on the surface of the pond,off.Works better than a net.Works for blanket and chick weed