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My ponds (and the blanket weed war)-Diary 2013

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!

    It's not always easy to hug a hedgehog.

    But that doesn't mean you shouldn't.