BLANKET WEED CONTROL AND REMOVAL

This was the refurbishment of a large (17,000 gallons) informal pond constructed using a Firestone pond liner, with an edging of lawn along the front edge and Mendip rockery stone around the far edge and one side. There is a single powerful fountain.

The pond had not been cleaned out since it was constructed approximately ten years ago. The pond had very overgrown plants. These plants were not well chosen (There were too many grasses and not enough flowering plants. The flowering plants were too large with too much leaf and not enough flowers. Surprisingly the pond contained very few waterlilies). The pond was leaking. The pond was very dirty with between an eight to ten-inch depth of mud and rotting leaves across the floor of the pond.

We drained down the pond. Took out the mud and rotting leaves. We pressure washed the surface of the pond liner. We located all the holes in the pond liner. In addition to examining the exposed areas of pond liner, this also involved removing the rocks around the top edge of the pond to expose the pond liner for inspection. We patched the holes and replaced the rocks (placing them on off-cuts of pond liner to help protect the actual pond liner from the rough surfaces of the rocks. We emptied all the large planting tubs and disposed of the original plants, replacing them with new ones including some grasses but with an emphasis on flowering plants and including lots of waterlilies. We cleaned and serviced the fountain pump. We refilled the pond using a meter to measure the volume of the pond (This is useful when it comes to using medications and treatments on the pond). Cutting back the shrubbery next to the pond to expose an ornamental statue which had become overgrown and hidden.

This work was completed in the autumn. The new plants were shedding their leaves as happens at this time of year. These plants will sit out the winter and then in the spring they will come to life and spend the coming season growing and spreading into full sized plants. We would expect the plants to mature quickly and to produce flowers even in the short time they have had to establish themselves. The pond is too large for a filtration system to be a practical proposition. We would expect the water in an unfiltered pond to go green with algae after re-filling which it did. The pond has now cleared.

This is a large pond to maintain. A lot of leaves will fall into the pond in the autumn and leaves will also blow into the pond from around the garden. Now that the pond has cleared it will probably stay clear for a long time but without a filter, you can never be certain about this. If the pond does stay clear - blanket weed (filamentous algae) loves clear water. The blanket weed can be removed by hand but not completely and blanket weed can be very fast growing. There are some effective and safe medications that can be used to control blanket weed but the very large size of the pond will mean that the cost of using them will be very high.