Chicken bald back

[mullethunter]

At our new (been here nearly 4 months now but still feels new) house we have a small (about a meter by meter and a half) pond. It's basically just a liner above the ground surrounded by log border roll. The shallow end is full off moss and funny spiral rushes, but the deep end (probably a bit over a foot) is mostly water albeit a bit choked with a small flowered water lily.

 

I know it probably has too much of a temperature fluctuation to support most things, but it was full of tadpoles in the spring and it does have a resident diving beetle.

 

Problem is the sides are getting really clagged in blanket weed. By the looks of it the previous owner had some stuff that he poured in to get rid of it, but does anyone know if that's safe for wildlife?

[Luvachicken]

I tend to pull the blanket weed out with my hands and leave it on the side for any animals to crawl back into the pond.

For bits I can't reach I use what looks like a bottle brush on a long handle and it does a good job at grabbing it.

If you have pine trees nearby leave the blanket weed for a bit as it is very useful for catching pesky pine needles.

[mullethunter]

I did exactly that with a load of moss and lily roots which were clogging it up, so I guess that probably is the thing to do with this too.

 

Thanks luvachicken

[Luvachicken]

If you keep on top of it, it doesn't get too bad, and in fact it does get worse in Spring as the weather warms up, but I know in my Mums pond the tadpoles seem to like it.

 

In my pond it particularly likes to stick on the edges of the pond liner and it does make your fingers ache trying to pull it off.

 

I think adding any 'chemical' to the pond upsets the normal balance of the water. It will sort itself out in the end.

 

One plant to add could be a water hawthorn. I have one in my pond and it flowers its little heart out all Winter and it smells beautiful too.

Frogbit is good too - kind of like a mini water lily that trails all around and can have dainty white flowers. You just pull out bits if it gets out of control. In the Autumn it starts to die off and then little buds hibernate at the bottom of the pond ready to start again in the Spring.

 

These plants cover up some of the surface of the pond and make it more difficult for the blanket weed to take over.