maintaining a Garden Pond
~~enjo posted Message 1273 in the Gardening BBS
Dated : March 25, 1999 at 11:08:24
Subject: Some ideas...Re: Garden Pond
Barba, if you add some oxygenating plants and a few inexpensive "cleaner" critters, you'll have a healthier, cleaner, naturally balanced garden pond.
Any good water garden shop or mail-order catalog or online supplier can help you, or I might be abe to dig up some info from some of my sources (given enough time!)...
Mostly, what you must know to get the correct amount/number of water-cleaning/pond-side+floor-cleaning creatures and-or plants which will help create a more naturally-balanced garden pond is this:
approximately how large is your pond in "volume" : length X width X depth (even if pond is very irregularly shaped, calculate the volumes of several areas then calculate the mathematical average of all of them & you'll get a resonably close approximation).
Or, you might at least know already how many gallons it holds. Often a person with a pre-fab or pre-formed garden pond knows that because it's on a label or in other info when you buy it.
Also, if you don't already have one, a small recirculating pump usually helps keep a water feature cleaner and aerates the water more too.
There are a lot of wonderful "dripping" water type pumps & recirculating fountains, which are great because dripping water attracts birds.
However-- most birds are notoriously shy about getting near deep water (more than a couple of inches) for fear of drowning (yep they can drown!). So you also need to be sure they have a shallow portion of the pond to drink from.
You can build up one fairly shallow end of a garden pond with rough-surfaced rocks for better "birdie footing." Or, some people fix in-ground ponds so the water from the larger deeper part laps over into a smaller, plastic lined shallow pool or "bog." There are some really nice bog plants too, which grow at the edges of ponds. They can take standing water (constantly moist soil) but won't usually grow in actual deep-water as oxygenating plants and other plants like water lilies do.
You don't want a recirculating pump or fountain that's too powerful --first, it's a waste of electricity; and second, especially if you get into plants & water critters, many cannot take too strong a "current" (this is a pond environment, not an ocean, LLLOL!!).
But if the pump is too small it might "burn out" quickly & again you'll just be wasting money.
Regarding pump or fountain sizes, again, your best bet is to get your pond measurements and ask advice from a reputable
water garden supplier, in the "real" or the "virtual" world.