If you have a fountain in your pond, now’s the time to turn it on as it will help to oxygenate the water and will also deter duckweed from forming. And make sure that you keep it running at night when the weather is particularly warm as whilst plants give off oxygen during the day they take it in at night, depleting what’s available in the water for your fish.
It’s also important to try to balance the amount of the pond covered or filled with plants. Covering up to 2/3rds of the surface of the pond is about right, too much more and you may experience an oxygen problem, too little and there is little competition for algae - and the sun penetrates the water stimulating its growth. This obviously doesn’t apply if you are a koi keeper with a filtered system, but you could use plants to provide natural filtration in a separate area. Extract of Barley Straw is a safe and natural way of controlling blanketweed without any fear of reaction with any chemical treatments you may be using for your fish.
What wildlife is visible in your pond at the moment? As well as lots of growth in the plant life in our pond we’ve recently spotted baby newts (more correctly called larva or efts) and also seem to have more water boatmen than ever before. If you’d like to record the amphibians and wildlife in your pond and contribute to Pond Conservation’s Big Pond Dip you can go to www.pondconservation.org.uk/BigPondDip to download instructions and a form for the 2010 survey.
