My pond was one of the first things I added to the garden… once I had cleared it, some 20 years ago! The garden was completely overgrown when I purchased the house and it took many years to get it looking like a garden. Every year, I cut back the foliage around the pond, as it grows so quickly, but it has not had a proper complete clearcut for a very long time. The yellow flag has become so huge, that 3/4 of the pond was the corms and root system of this species. It got to the point this year, that this foliage took all the water out of the pond and there was very little visible water surface. This has meant less of a habitat and hardly any dragonflies and damselflies.
Clearing out even a small pond is a pretty big job, so when Tim came down for a few days this weekend, I took full advantage of an extra pair of hands and put him to work in my pond. I have been building a new website for his Black Isle properties , so now it was pay-back time!! #gallery-19088-12 { margin: auto; } #gallery-19088-12 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-19088-12 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-19088-12 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
It was difficult to know where to begin… I could hardly see the pond and there was very little water left in it….
We started by cutting back all the foliage around the area. It is lots of ferns and these will all spring back to life next year.
A few rescues were made….
As soon all the foliage was removed, it was clear that almost 80% of my pond was not Yellow flag roots! So heavy and thick, it was a very slow job cutting through small sections at a time at first, being careful to puncture the liner. As we removed sections, we were able to get a spade underneath and hack of larger sections, some so large we could only just lift them between us!
We were then presented with about 30cm of stinking mud! After a lot of slopping mud and buckets up to the compost heap, we left some in the bottom and I could finally be reminded how large my pond actually was! #gallery-19088-14 { margin: auto; } #gallery-19088-14 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-19088-14 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-19088-14 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
It was then a matter of topping up the pond… I wanted to check there were no leaks before I put the pump back on and got the stream running again. It will spend the winter settling back down. I need to do some more work now on the surrounds and replant some of the shallow edges in the Spring. #gallery-19088-15 { margin: auto; } #gallery-19088-15 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-19088-15 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-19088-15 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
Although it won’t look too amazing over the winter, I am hoping that a few more weekends of work and the effects of this work will be felt in the Spring when the whole area springs back into life. I feel it will be a much better habitat for wildlife.
Thank you Tim for helping me with this rather mucky job!
Comments