Pond Dipping

Over the summer, my little pond was pretty much choked with a combination of lilypads and some grass-like stuff. I decided to remove some of the grassy stuff yesterday, so I grabbed a handful and pulled.

The entire pond moved.

It was all or nothing, so I started hauling out grassy stuff, and lily pads. Up came the original plant pots, along with some enormous roots and about half a ton of black and fairly smelly mud. I dumped it on the edge of the pond, as you can see, and left it there overnight so that any little creatures could work their way back into the water.

Today, I sorted out some water hawthorn and put that back in and put the rest of the pile (minus pots) into the recycling bag to go to the tip. I could barely lift it! Hopefully it will dry out a bit and not be quite so heavy by the time I come to transport it.

The pond itself now looks empty. I hope any frogs and newts which are hibernating in there haven't been too disturbed. I shall be replacing the lily with a dwarf variety, which hopefully won't take over the whole pond. I hope I haven't completely destroyed the little ecosystem which has built up over the last five years and that it will sort itself out when things start to grow again next spring. Time will tell.