Revivalise your pond: How to refresh your pond in five easy steps!

An unhappy visitor

Ponds are great. They can be water features, wildlife habitats, newt breeding sites or just for

Koi. But, like most things, they can get a little tired after a while. Fortunately, your pond can be refreshed quickly and easily, in just a few steps.
 First, determine whether your pond needs it. There are several "warning signs" that you can look out for: masses of blanket weed or duckweed, over-crowding oxygenators (pond plants), leaves collecting on the surface of the water, and branches dangling into the pond. As you can see, my pond contained ALL these warning signs, so it was definitely due a check up.

I decided to clean mine out now, (October) as all the baby newts, tadpoles or other beauties will have grown up and moved on, giving me a less likely chance of scaring them to death. You can clean out your pond now, or later on this year, (but before the pond freezes over!).

You will need:

Rubber gloves

A big bucket

A net 

Step One: Scoop out the overcrowding oxygenators. If you don't have that many, then you should leave them alone, but two years of unchecked growth can become a problem scarily fast! It means that your pond creatures have less space to move around, and many can become trapped!

Step Two: Using a net, collect all the blanket weed and duckweed. Although this is a bit icky, it does need to be done, as they can become deadly to a wildlife pond. Tadpoles, newts and even small fish can swim into the sticky masses, and get so tangled up that they never swim out again. This is probably the most crucial step.

Step Three: Plunge your net into the deep end of your pond, and scoop out most of the leaf mulch. Although this can be beneficial to the pond, too much can add excess nitrogen to the water, and provides the food that duck and blanket weed need to grow properly. If you cut this supply off, you decrease the chances of a mass re-invasion in the spring. 

Step Four: Chop back any branches dangling into your pond. They are just another provider of the leaf mulch that you are trying to remove!

Step Five: Empty your bucket into the bin, and rinse your gloves. You are done! Your pond will now have the breathing space it needs to start growing again next spring.