In need of some advice about a neglected pond

There's an old pond in my garden which for some years has been very neglected - surrounded and overhung by thick brambles, also overhung by some young trees (no idea what type), plenty of rotting leaves in it, etc.

The pond is about 20 feet across.

It's moderately shaded from a nearby building so doesn't get a huge amount of sun in the summer and barely any in the winter.

I've nearly finished removed the thick brambles (it's taken many weeks of on/off work to do this) and am currently in the process of using a net to remove as many rotting leaves and debris from the pond as I can.

There's no fish in it and I have no plans to add any, I just want it to be a good pond for wildlife.

There's some water lillies growing in it which look healthy (I'll leave those of course), and a type of pond plant with long thin tubular leaves (no idea what it's called but it too looks healthy). I'll leave that as well.

The pond itself smells okay, as does any undisturbed water if I scoop some up and sniff it, so I don't think it's stagnant. The leaves that I remove from the bottom smell a bit but that's to be expected. The water is surprisingly pretty clear when undisturbed (except when I remove the leaves of course, but any stirred up brown-ish sediment soon settles).

Some questions:

a) I know I'll never be able to remove all of the leaves without dredging it and I don't want to do that, there's bound to be quite a bit of debris and rotting matter at the bottom of the pond. But should I be adding anything to the water to restore any kind of chemical imbalance?

b) This is probably a laughable question, but given all of the above details, is the pond water 'dangerous'? I'm not of course intending to drink any! But should I be keeping it off my skin for any reason? Avoiding getting in my eyes? (not planning to do that either of course!). As it looks clear and plants are growing in it I assume that as long as I don't drink it there's no issues.

c) Should I be removing some or all of the young trees that overhang the pond?

d) Should I be adding any kind of pump or waterfall-like feature to aerate it? Something solar-powered perhaps?

e) There's a bit of pond weed covering maybe a third of the surface, I'll remove most of it but perhaps best to leave some?



Any advice please based on the above?

Thanks

 

I'm not an expert on ponds but what I've seen on YouTube it has to be out of shade. The trees will have to go, the debris on the bottom might contribute to blanket weed with the nitrogen from it. You're not going to drink the water so it'll be ok and getting it on your skin won't be a issue if you wash afterwards. I wouldn't have a pump or fountain if it's going to be a wildlife pond and please put a ramp in so that the hedgehogs can get out, they can swim but drown if they can't get out.

 

Here's some videos that might help.

 

Thanks to both of you for the advice and the video links. At least the trees aren't too big so I may be able to remove them with my hand saw.

 

Some shade helps to stop the water turning green but deep shade is not good, also falling leaves are not good, but a few wont hurt, I tend to go round and collect them in a net but my pond is smaller than yours.
How deep is it?

 

You're welcome, if you just cut the trees down they might grow back, it all depends on what they are, if they're conifers they shouldn't.

 

If the water's clear and 'sweet' then it's found it's own chemical balance The shade will have prevented algae from growing. Shade from water lily leaves is good but I'd definitely get rid of any overhanging trees, as Logan says. The less rotting leaves in it the better as the gases they release when decomposing can be a problem for hibernating creatures if it gets iced over.
I doubt a solar-powered pump would be much use in shade and is only really necessary if you're keeping fish.
Look forward to seeing photos of it when it's got it's new lease of life

 

There was certainly a lot of deep shade on the pond until I cleared away the brambles, however the trees on their own are only causing a dappled shade, so maybe it's okay to leave them?

I'll need to get into the habit of clearing the leaves every so often.

The pond is about 5 or 6 feet in depth when full (I can't measure it exactly, that's from pushing a stick into it as close to the middle as I can get without falling in).

 

Its up to you if you get rid of all the trees, its something you can do later if they are too much, sounds like a good depth so should balance itself pretty much without too much messing around.
As you want it for wildlife only I'd not mess with it too much, just maybe try to create a bit of a "beach" somewhere if that is possible so wildlife has some sloping area rather than just dropping off a cliff.

Is it concrete construction or a liner or just a clay bottom.

 

It sounds like you already had a good wildlife pond, do not add any chemicals of any sort if you wish it to remain a wildlife pond. Partial shade is excellent for a pond, if a pond is exposed to a lot of light, then it will need a lot of floating foliage to cover a large part of the surface, lily or water hawthorn are very good for that, frog bit is excellent but a bit of a thug and takes over(I problem I have, quite alarming just how fast that stuff grows). My relatively new pond now has an abundance of wild creatures because it has leaves in it, invertebrates will process and eat the leaves, then the more interesting critters like dragon flies will lay eggs and the larvae feed on the shrimps and other inverts, many of which can fly and will appear in your pond with little help from us. Adding fish would cause quite a few extra problems in a wild life pond and are really best avoided even in a quite large pond like yours.

 

It's a liner.

There is a low wall around it (about a foott high) and the base of the pond is fairly level at the edges and then steadily, and after that sharply, slopes down. Currently, due to lack of rain in early to mid summer, the fairly level perimeter/edge is exposed and dry. The water level was quite low until recently but is slowly rising.

The liner is punctured in places towards the edge - I know this because I've found bramble roots sticking right through it. Not a problem really as the bulk of the pond is watertight and the dry edge/perimeter gives the wildlife a nice dry spot. I suspect that what will happen is that the pond will never fill completely any more or if it does (in a heavy burst of rain) it will slowly leak away at the top. I'm fine with that.

 

Thanks. I won't be adding any chemicals. My main mission right now is just to remove the leaf excess that's built up at the bottom (but I'll never get it all out so that's okay for the wildlife). I'll leave some areas where there's weed and one 'floating island' area.

I did need to clear the brambles though, they were so invasive and threatening to completely overwhelm the pond, they were slowly getting tangled in the trees as well.

No plans to add any fish.

 

I'm thinking that the low wall might be an obstacle to some wild life.

 

Can't do anything about that I'm afraid, the pond edge is a foot below the edge of the lawn and the low 'wall' is part of the edge, if you see what I mean. So on the lawn side the top stones are only 3 or 4 inches above the level of the lawn, then there's the drop into the top 'level', fairly flat edge of the pond, so this 'path' is about 2 feet wide (and the latter is currently dry as the pond level is relatively low but slowly filling with recent rain).

 

Have you got any pictures?