I've used it in all the ponds I've had Yvie. At my last house we had one big pond which fed into a smaller, badly neglected one. After removing all the jungle of rosebay from it, a handful of watercress cleared the blanketweed.They were fed by a natural spring. At the previous house, near where I live now, I had a pond about the same size with standing water. Watercress cleared it within a month or so. It can seed around but it's easy to pull out.
This is the only pic I have of the 'tidied' pond. You can see the white flowers of the cress at the left hand side. It was very shallow too, so it heated up at the edges very quickly
I'd stick a handful in Lyn - nothing to lose!
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Fairygirl - that's another lovely pond from your hand,you have a real talent for it The watercress - it says to plant in gravel so it concentrates on taking the nutrients from the water rather than what its planted in. Is this true? Also would sharp sand do cos I've got some of that.
Lyn - my pond is starting to look a bit murky already too but I think its a natural transition. The pond plants need time to establish and start gobbling up the nutrients in the water which at the same time starves algae and blanket weed. I've been reading online and watercress is particularly adept at this.
PS - frog wasn't there today. I hope a big nasty heron hasn't visited
I have chucked in 2 big handfuls of water cress today, floating loose, not planted.
The pond is very clear you can see the bottom now even in the deep bit, maybe you need more floating oxygenators,fishy, i have the baby soldiers for you ready to go, they are about 2/3 inches diameter. They are off the mother plant, they grow like the houseplant called Spider plant.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Fishy - I can't take any credit for those two ponds - we inherited them, but they were very neglected. My partner at the time had no idea that pond was there - it was so badly overgrown, and the big one was a mess too, so we spent a lot of time renovating and improving it by creating a path so that we could walk right along it and enjoy the wildlife better
I've never planted my watercress - I just chuck it in and it gradually sets itself into the edges or bits of silt, but I may plant some in my new little pond. I'm thinking of putting it in a little mesh pocket at one side. They're good if you don't have nice even shelves for baskets and you can buy them now, but I might just cobble one together with some netting or landscape fabric. That's the mean...errr...canny Scot coming out in me
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Well, the swoopy dragon almost has his chips today, first off he swooped down on
me, hitting me in the face then getting tangled in my hair, then he kept dive bombing on the cat until in the end Thomas upped with his paw and beat him to the ground, I rescued him and he flew away, no harm
done, except we are both scared of him now!
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Just to bring things up to date a little. The water in the pond has cleared very nicely after looking like pea soup in September. I can see strands of Canadian pond weed and Hornwort growing up from the bottom
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I've used it in all the ponds I've had Yvie. At my last house we had one big pond which fed into a smaller, badly neglected one. After removing all the jungle of rosebay from it, a handful of watercress cleared the blanketweed.They were fed by a natural spring. At the previous house, near where I live now, I had a pond about the same size with standing water. Watercress cleared it within a month or so. It can seed around but it's easy to pull out.
This is the only pic I have of the 'tidied' pond. You can see the white flowers of the cress at the left hand side. It was very shallow too, so it heated up at the edges very quickly
I'd stick a handful in Lyn - nothing to lose!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Fairygirl - that's another lovely pond from your hand,you have a real talent for it
The watercress - it says to plant in gravel so it concentrates on taking the nutrients from the water rather than what its planted in. Is this true? Also would sharp sand do cos I've got some of that.
Lyn - my pond is starting to look a bit murky already too but I think its a natural transition. The pond plants need time to establish and start gobbling up the nutrients in the water which at the same time starves algae and blanket weed. I've been reading online and watercress is particularly adept at this.
PS - frog wasn't there today. I hope a big nasty heron hasn't visited
I have chucked in 2 big handfuls of water cress today, floating loose, not planted.
The pond is very clear you can see the bottom now even in the deep bit, maybe you need more floating oxygenators,fishy, i have the baby soldiers for you ready to go, they are about 2/3 inches diameter. They are off the mother plant, they grow like the houseplant called Spider plant.
Fishy - I can't take any credit for those two ponds - we inherited them, but they were very neglected. My partner at the time had no idea that pond was there - it was so badly overgrown, and the big one was a mess too, so we spent a lot of time renovating and improving it by creating a path so that we could walk right along it and enjoy the wildlife better
I've never planted my watercress - I just chuck it in and it gradually sets itself into the edges or bits of silt, but I may plant some in my new little pond. I'm thinking of putting it in a little mesh pocket at one side. They're good if you don't have nice even shelves for baskets and you can buy them now, but I might just cobble one together with some netting or landscape fabric. That's the mean...errr...canny Scot coming out in me
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Look what I got! had to blow photo up so not too clear.
I must confess Lyn, I didn't see it at first...that gorgeous dragonfly. I think you're going to have lots of dragonfly larvae in your pond.
I bought a bag of watercress today but didn't get a chance to float it in the pond what with everything going on.
I did chuck mine in yesterday, this morning it was tight up to the side
The dragonfly is big and has a huge head, scary, he kept swooping up to us.
Well, the swoopy dragon almost has his chips today, first off he swooped down on
me, hitting me in the face then getting tangled in my hair, then he kept dive bombing on the cat until in the end Thomas upped with his paw and beat him to the ground, I rescued him and he flew away, no harm
done, except we are both scared of him now!
Just to bring things up to date a little. The water in the pond has cleared very nicely after looking like pea soup in September. I can see strands of Canadian pond weed and Hornwort growing up from the bottom
That's very encouraging Fishy.
In the sticks near Peterborough