Keep leaves from clogging up your garden pond this fall.
With deciduous trees overlooking your landscape, Fall can be a particularly challenging time of year to keep your garden pond clean. Fallen leaves can clog up your pond, and too much organic material accumulating at the bottom can create a big problem. An additional pond skimmer skimmer or temporary netting is one way to prevent this from happening.
Why You Need to Keep Your Pond Clean
Leaves covering the bottom of your pond may look bad, but that is far from the biggest concern. When leaves decompose, they release compounds that can put the lives of your fish at risk and also promote algae growth. Many pond keepers end up having fish die in the winter months, and they misattribute the cause to the cold weather. In actuality, the fish usually die as a result of leaf buildup in the pond. Keeping leaves out is usually much easier than trying to remove them after they’ve already fallen into the pond.
Pond Netting
One easy way to address leaf control is by netting your pond. You can sup a net over your water garden quickly and save hours of work having to clean it up later. You will want to select netting that is specifically sold for this purpose. Fabric netting with small holes will work best to keep leaves out, including pine needles. Fabric netting will also last longer than cheaper plastic netting that may only last for a single season. Even if you opt for netting to protect your pond, you should remove leaves once or twice a week to prevent the net from collapsing beneath the weight of the leaves and accumulated rain water.
Manually Removing Debris
If it’s not possible to use netting over your pond, you will have to plan to manually remove fallen leaves and debris. You can make this job easier by using a pond rake, handheld pond net, or pond skimmer. Although it can be a challenge to prevent leaves from clogging your plond, careful planning and hard work will ensure it stays clean.
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