Where to start? Pond refurb - any advice welcome, please!

Hello, everyone.

I've just joined the forum and would welcome any advice with my pond project, please. The pond was in place when we moved into our house about 15 years ago and - I'm ashamed to admit - it's been pretty much neglected ever since. But, this is it's year and I'm very excited about having the time to tackle it at last. I just don't know where to start!

I have some ideas about how I would like it to finish up in an ideal world but I think maybe I just need to see what I've got first, especially the state of the current liner.
As you can see from the pictures, the pond is currently choked with what I think are yellow flags - I'm guessing that removing them would be my first job (?)

My worry has always been disturbing the wildlife - what water still is in there is clear, with lots of things swimming around in it. Do I just have to bite the bullet and get everything out in order to look longer term? If so, is it best to get going sooner rather than later in the year?

I would be very grateful for any thoughts, please. This is all new to me! Thank you.

 

Hi @Looby-Lou.

Hmmm, I am no expert, but it might help if I share what I have been doing today.

I have a half-hogshead barrel that I use as a water feature. For the past 5 years it has been full of water to the brim, with a pump gently turning the water. There was a basket of yellow flag, and a basket of watermint, and a few goldfish keeping the mosquitos at bay. Dragonflies were frequently seen around the water, and I’m sure that there were some larvae in there.

Last summer we had a long drought, and struggled to keep the barrel topped up and the timbers saturated. So the level started to drop, and the -10c nights for a week did for it. It froze, the ice stretched the timbers, and the level finally dropped from 60cm to around 15cm.

I knew that I had to do something!

Today I fought, hacked and finally dragged the yellow flag out of the barrel - it had grown into the other basket, and was filling about 1/3 of the barrel! Somewhere in the tangle of roots was the water lily! I’ve put the water plants in one 40 litre trug, the mulm/sludge/roots in another trug, and some of the clearer water and the fish in a third trug. I have salvaged as much of the water as I can.

As the barrel is no longer watertight, I have found a huge flowerpot with no drainage holes, which I will sit in the barrel. It will be surrounded by a new “bog garden” with the plants, and the pot will be relatively plant-free, with just the fish and a fountain...

I don’t think there is a perfect time to refurb a pond, but the next couple of weeks is probably better than most!
I’d go for it, having found as many watertight containers as possible, so you can keep as much wild “critters” alive as you can.

Any alternative thoughts, other watery peeps?

 

Hi Looby-Lou, you might get away with sorting it before the mad, spring froggy-fest starts I'd agree with Sian, get some watertight containers handy for keeping anything you want to save. If you let tap-water 'air' for a few days, and add some original pond water, it will be fine for plants and wildlife. Do you know what material the original liner is made of? If it's butyl rubber or EDPM, it should be good for 50 years. If it's just polythene sheeting, it'll need replacing, so best order underlay and a liner before you start.
That yellow flag sounds like a positive menace! Quite a few 'native' pond plants are on the invasive side, with unlimited water and nutrients. Iris ensata are beautiful but well-behaved Arum lilies (Zantedeschia) grow well as marginal plants. I'd avoid Pontederia, any type of bullrush, Oenanthe japonica and Caltha.
Forget the titchy planting baskets usually sold for aquatics! Biggish but shallow, rectangular open-weave containers lined with geotextile or shade netting are much more practical. Filled with decent soil and topped off with rounded pebbles, they won't need dividing as often. They also provide a useful 'exit' for amphibians.
Hope some of the above helps
@Sian in Belgium ...could you not line the barrel with EPDM? Some companies even make liners to shape, to avoid creasing and pleats.

 

Hi,

As its good clear water and nearly full then think your liner in good order, so would leave well alone.

If you want to keep the wildlife then probably best to just clear up one half of the pond, so the creatures can take shelter in the other half.
If you do the whole pond in one go then you will likely upset the whole eco system of the pond.

Once the refurbished side has re-established in a few months they will them migrate back over and you can do the other side.

Think you will need some strong cutters across the middle of the pond as those flags and their roots will probably be a sold mass.
Would think other pond owners would love some big peices of them, we would !

 

Hi all, I joined the corner at the weekend and in my lunch hour today (still working from home) I spent my time taking out yellow flags. A single plant was put in about 3 years ago and had taken up pretty much the entire pond (it's only a tiny wildlife pond) so I dragged it out of the pond and will split it tomorrow. What I don't want will go up on the local free site to see if anyone else wants one as they are expensive to buy (not sure why - grows like a weed!). I did remember to leave it by the side of the pond so any little water critters can make their way back in... :D

 

We would welcome a handful of Flag Iris Rhizomes, happily pay postage or collect if you are anywhere near the M62/M1 corridor .

 

@ricky101.. Sorry nowhere near M62/M1. Right down in the south I'm afraid. Maybe there is someone on here a bit nearer to you who could help?

 

I had yellow iris in my pond for a while, but really its only suitable for lakes.
It grows li.ke the clappers.
There are much better suited marginal plants

 

@pete yes I have learned the hard way. Will have to be a bit more conservative with the plants in future and do a bit of research before getting over excited at the garden centre!

 

Oops meant to say learnt.....

 

Yeah as I say, I tried it also, but it just gets out of hand and flowers about once a year if I remember correctly.

 

And doesn't flower for very long so not a lot of reward for all the growth! I looked it up and it says it is supposed to flower from May to July but that has never happened for me. A week if I'm lucky. The pond is in a quite shaded area though so that's probably got something to do with it.

 

I think they mean it can flower from May to July, if you have masses of it with lots of different stems coming into flower.
But in a garden pond that isn't really likely.

 

A couple of easy to grow plants, if you can get hold of them, so many places already sold out though you might find a garden center with some fresh stock, online offerings tend to be rather small pieces, as we found out last autumn.

Water Forget Me Not, little blue flowers.

Water Mint - Mentha, some smallish flower spikes but a quick grower to fill a corner.

Caltha -Marsh Marigold - Big buttercup flowers in Spring with big green leaves above the water.

 

You must really love spending your summers battling over-enthusiastic pond plants, @ricky101