A place to learn, share and inspire others to create a haven for you and for wildlife.
Sign In or Register to join the conversation
After cleaning out my pond last weekend I thought I would keep a photo diary of the pond this year.
At present I have 4 goldfish and 1 green tench but will be buying more fish later on.
I actually have 2 ponds,one for goldfish and a small wildlife one.
In past years I have had a big problem with blanket weed and have tried a few different things,barley straw logs,barley straw extract and even in desperation used a chemical solution.Needless to say none worked to any great effect.
Last year I tried using floating plants to block out sunlight and so stop the blanket weed growing too much.
I used Azolla filiculoides which is a small floating fern and looks quite attractive (Google it!).
It was very sucessful in getting rid of the blanket weed but became such a problem in itself as it is so invasive! I could not see the fish and it killed several other plants in the pond as it just completely smothered them.
I am going to have to continue removing the Azolla by hand as it can be persistant!
So this year I am trying another product (natural and harmless to pondlife etc) called 'Blanket Answer'.
Since I have no blanket weed at present (thanks to the Azolla) I hope to start from a good point.
This is the pond before cleaning showing the Azolla on the surface,I would actually remove this by the bucketful!:-
Big pond before and after treatment (Day 1).The cloudiness is supposed to clear in a few days.
and the wildlife pond before and after treatment:-
It's not always easy to hug a hedgehog.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't.
I have seen a froglet in the pond today (pics later) so success!
Pond is still clear and I now can see that I have 6 goldfish and I assume the tench which I rarely see making 7 fish in all.
The new waterlily has just flowered so the pond is looking good at last!