Inherited pond, first time pond owner help!

Hi all, my first post in this forum so hopefully I am doing it right!
I have just moved into a beautiful cottage, and it has come with a decent-sized pond. I have never had a pond before so I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing with it. I am sure that for the most part it will look after itself (?), but I feel from looking at it that it might need some tlc right now.

The main thing is it has lots of leaves in it from surrounding trees, and there's a lot of green weed/algae? in there too. I am guessing that I need to at least remove the leaves, but what about all the green in there? The hurdle (if it is one), is that the pond is full of newts and a pair of frogs moved in this week too. Can I clean it up without disturbing them spawning or should I leave it for now?
I have (hopefully) attached some pictures.

 

That is one happy looking pond. And you are so lucky to have wildlife in it. If it were mine, I would do the absolute minimum to it. For example, I would leave it undisturbed if that is possible. Maybe pick out a few of the biggest fallen leaves but put them into a riddle or other open mesh container and rest that on the edge of the pond so that any wildlife clinging to the leaves can drop back into the water.

Our pond was doing well until a pair of mallards arrived about a month ago. They have stirred up the water with their feet and eaten the frog spawn and toad spawn and frightened away the newts. They are very friendly and great characters, but they have finished off my plans for a watery ecosystem in my garden.

 

Hello and welcome to GC. Beautiful pond! Firstly, don't worry about the newts and frogs. The urge to breed will overcome any disturbance on your part. Definitely get out out as many leaves as possible, as well as sludge from former autumns if there is any near the top. Rotting leaves eventually lead to toxic water. If the frogs have spawned already, just scoop the jelly-like clumps back in near some plants and so they're just covered by water. (Toadspawn is in long strings of jelly with black blobs). Depending on how fussy you are about the surrounding paving, lay a plastic sheet or a couple of bin bags on it with the edge hanging back into the pond and put what you dredge out on that. Leave it for a couple of days so any wildlife can wiggle it's way back into the water :-) Residue can be composted or spread under shrubs and trees to enrich the soil. Do hope that this helps....

 

Hi and Welcome to the Forum,

It depends on what you want to do with the pond, keep small fish in it or, as it seems to be now without fish , which allows you to keep it a natual plant and wildlife area ?

As the frogs etc are already in there would suggest you just remove the surface floating leaves and avoid disturbing the sediment for now.
The patches of algae, you could lift some of it now before the frogs spawn, but leave a fair bit for the tadpoles etc.

Looks like quiet a few plants are already putting up new shoots so would avoid anything major for a couple of months to see what else is in there.

With its shallow edge expect you will get a lot of larger visitors to the pond, so covering that area with an infra red camera can be interesting.

 

Thanks @Tidemark @noisette47 @ricky101

I do feel very lucky, I wasn't expecting it to have much in it but it seems to be filled with things! I've also see a couple of diving beetles and there's a lot of water snails too.

Planning to keep it natural, no fish. Few cats about and lots of birds of prey so I am not sure fish would do very well!

I'll scoop out some of the fallen leaf sludge and leave it to the side for a bit then, and hope that doesn't disturb too much and helps clean up the water a little. I guess I can re-evaluate in the Autumn after spending the spring and summer getting to know what plants and wildlife call it home and then invest in a net to catch the leaves next time!

 

Wildlife ponds normally suffer with algae at this time of year because the days are longer but the plants aren't in full growth yet. It looks like you will have a lot of the surface covered with lily pads and once they get going, most of that algae will likely disappear. If it was my pond I would perhaps get the leaves I could reach out but do nothing else. In my experience, wildlife ponds take a couple of years to establish and are best left with minimal disturbance.

 

Do you want a wildlife pond or not is the question, if you do, then leave it alone, my pond gets full of leaves in the autumn, I fish a few out then, but not in the Spring. Rotting leaves will not cause any harm if there's no fish involved, my pond is full of freshwater shrimps which feed on the leaves, nature will balance it out. The problem is if the water gets too much light from direct sun, my pond is partially in the shade during the hottest part of the day and the plants and duck weed keep the rest of it shaded. Very small ponds are quite difficult to maintain, not because of leaves or a layer of "sludge in the bottom, over heating is what kills off the pond life.

 

Hi @Thevictorian @burnie thanks for commenting!
I don't know how old the pond it, I would say at least a few years. It gets some sun during the day but we do have a large tree and some garden buildings that should offer it shade in the summer.
I've moved a small amount of the leaf sludge that was on the pebbled part and around there and have left it to the side so hopefully any creatures can go back in, but I am leaving anything deeper.

 

When we moved into our house we had a massive pond, approximately 24' x 8' but lined with builders plastic (previous owner was a cheapskate!). In the Spring the noise from the frogs was incredible. When I had to empty and put a proper liner in I shortened the pond by about 8'. I eventually gave up completely with it as it was in deep shade all the time, and under trees. I simply couldn't keep up with getting the muck out.

 

I had a similar situation; when I first moved in my garden had two big ponds, one above the other on the slope, and a bit of a waterfall feature joining them with a couple of small overflow concrete ponds. Lots of attractive stonework concreted around everything.

The previous owner put them in at the same time as planting several trees, which when they matured put the ponds in a lot of shade.

When they started to leak I felt the job of restoration was beyond me, and also that the area was too shady anyway, so I filled them and they are now flowerbeds. The bigger one was so huge I filled it mostly with old wood from clearing other parts of the garden,with a layer of soil on the top. I then put extra old rotting stumps on the top and call it my "stumpery". The smaller one is currently full of daffodils.

One of the concrete overflow ponds is now growing mint. It leaks badly enough to drain adequately, but will contain the growth nicely.

All the stone surrounds are getting covered in moss which I like.

I have put in a very small pond for wildlife, that's just under a year old now, it's got a few plants and has cleared nicely. I've not seen much wildlife so far; there are diving beetles and the hoverflies spend a lot of time there in the summer.

The advice on maintenance is helpful. I have been fishing out any leaves that are floating on the top (my neighbour has magnolia and the leaves are enormous). Nice to know that leaving it alone is best!

 

If you feel the need to 'top-up' in dry weather, it is best to use rain water from a butt rather than chlorinated tap water which is likely to kill the invertebrates. Also ensure there is a route to overflow that causes no flooding, in the event of a severe downpour.

 

I have had ponds for around 60 years of various types and in various positions, not an expert by any means, learnt a lot of things the hard way.
You need to have a little understanding of the nature of water, I'm a life long angler who over the years have been taught by those that know, one worked for the water authorities before they were privatised and became the biggest vandals of them all.
You need to think what you want, do you want to keep fish is the first point, if yes, then you need to do a lot of reading, fish keeping in small volumes of water is an art in its self. I have kept fish in tanks including tropical marine invertebrates like corals, even kept Sea Horses at one point when were a bit less aware of what we were doing, this was in the early 1980's.
If you want to keep a wildlife pond, then you still need some knowledge, but less than keeping fish.
You need to understand that we are sort of replicating the wild/nature, but usually in miniature, you also need to know that nature is not neat and tidy. You do not need to do a lot of maintenance on a wild life pond, you should not keep constantly cleaning them out, you are removing a vital habitat that nature requires.
My pond is now 5 years old and has not been cleaned out at all, I remove debris from the surface only, some leaves/plant matter needs to be sinking down to the bottom, that is where the invertebrates live. Dragonfly larvae feed on the shrimps and smaller larvae. Water boatmen and Whirligig beetles need the food chain that the smaller insects provide. Newts, Frogs and Toads are predators that need the food chain, if you remove the bottom of the chain the top ones, the ones we like to watch, will go elsewhere.
When the weather is kinder I will do a short video on my youtube channel and will post a link, this will not be a tutorial, I am an amateur, it will be a guide only.

 

I'd agree to a certain point, burnie, but a heavy annual fall of leaves into a small, enclosed volume of water will lead eventually to an imbalance in the purity. Perhaps the simple answer is to prevent the leaves from falling in in the first place?

 

Netting does get done and of course there may be non native trees that could actually have a detrimental effect on the water. Water could be too acidic for your local wildlife or vice versa I guess. I keep using a small fishing net to scoop some of the leaves off the surface during Autumn, there are nets that can cover ponds to keep both leaves out and, if you have fish, reduce predation.

 

I've always tried to stop too many leaves falling in my pond, they do form a layer of fairly stinky sludge if you get too many in there regardless of whether you have fish or not.
Likewise the old lily leaves that rot down once frosted.

obviously if you have a "lake" you can get away with it.