Maintaining overgrown garden ponds and plants

Eventually all these plants you have added to the pool link up and hold vegetative hands and you have a pool that although is home to some specialised species of flora and fauna, it is probably time to do something about it.

Even after one season, the plants on the marginal shelf have settled in but are already beginning to link up and delve into each others basket.

At a stage before the pond is building up too much detritus on the bottom, the plant baskets can just be removed and the outsides just given a haircut of all the adventitious shoots and root growth. This may save you a clean out for another season.

If you probably have 3 to 4ins (8-10cm) of detritus that has built up in the bottom of a pond it is time to think in terms of cleaning out.

For particularly large ponds that dont necessarily have a plant problem but are just silting up, various products such as 'Aquaplankton' stimulate a massive growth of bacterial activity that can be very effective at digesting huge quantities of organic matter lying on the bottom of the pond. These products need oxygen and heat to work and so if the pond is lacking in oxygenators, be it mechanical or botanical, also especially if Autumn is on the horizon then there is no avoiding the evil day, its time for the big clean out.

Large ponds are especially mucky and tedious to clean out. Specialist contractors for the operation are recommended.

Late summer, early Autumn is in fact the best time to clean-out; best for you because the water is still warm; best for the wildlife because it has not yet begun to look for winter resting places; best for the plants if you want success in dividing them in time for the spring display.