The Perfect Pond Recipe, Avoiding First Time Gardening Problems

The 'WHYs'and 'Wherefores' Of Getting Water Gardens Underway ... There is a seeming myriad of mysteries in the 'muck and magic' of pond maintenance. If you have just created a water garden, then if all has gone well, and you have taken the right advice, you have set up what will potentially be a little world in its own right; an eco-system with all the living individuals of that environment interacting and depending on one another.

In time that world will become, effectively, self-sufficient.

Also in time and with patience this little world will achieve a balance; but that is not to say it will not have its ups and downs; with blooms of algae and population explosions of any beastie anywhere down the food chain. So if this little world is like a finely balanced seesaw, when tipped it should return to rest evenly balanced. Very often when there looks as though there is a problem, it might be the best advice to leave well alone until the seesaw effect returns the pond to normal.

This does not allow for the fact that the little pond world exists, itself, in a larger more turbulent world which puts it at the mercy of the extremes of the seasons, accident, foolhardy management and alien pests and predators. Put this together with the notion that if our pool or pond were a sentient being, and if it had any ambition when it starts out in life, it would want to grow up to become a mere 'boggy place', its ultimate achievement. It is your job therefore as the manager of this pool or pond's career to prevent this from happening and keep it the youthful vigorous environment you intended it to be.

In order to do this most effectively you need to start with the perfect set up so that all the ingredients that go into making a watergarden work to the full in the whole scheme of things.

Avoiding Problems From the Start

If you already have a pool and it seems to be a never ending source of problems and is never quite right, then it might be that something in the basic siting or planning and design was wrong. As a consequence, life is difficult for the pool for evermore. Check these 'DO'S and DONT'S' for getting started and then you will know you have started on 'an even keel'.

1. Planning is the key to a perfect pond and planning down to the first sod of earth you dig, to the moment you put some fish in. Budget for the cost of all the materials and be aware of how much work is involved. You dont want to run out of cash or energy before the end and make short cuts in some vital ingredient.

2. The pool should be in full sun. Nearly all plants associated with water need direct sunlight to flower, especially lilies.

3. It must be away from trees, particularly if prevailing winds are likely to carry poisonous leaves into the pond. All leaves asthey decay in the pool will cause some excessive load to the pool nitrogen cycle but the leaves of Willow, Elder, Poplars, Laburnums, Yew and Oak are highly toxic anyway.

4. Avoid siting the pool where there is too much exposure to the north or prevailing winds.

5. Avoid the boggy waterlogged area. It might seem the most suitable area to have a water garden but if you use a liner in your pool there will always be a threat of the ground water table pushing up the liner from underneath. Even if you managed to puddle it, and allowed the water draining from the surrounding land to get into it some clever way, you would always have the danger of fertilizers or other pollutants draining into it as well.

For the reason above, have the surrounding edge of the pool, be it paving, rock or grass, draining away from the pool.

7. Consider carefully the size and shape of the pool you want. Will all the things you want to keep in your pond fit in it quite happily? Whilst not going for the cheapest materials, make the poo as large as your pocket or energy will allow. The larger a pool or pond is, the steadier is the balance it will maintain. The absolute minimum size is 30sqft with a depth of 18inches. If you are going to keep Koi carp, then you need much more.

The shape should be as simple as possible. Convolutions, clever angles and large indentations can be created from the shoreline ornamentation and decoration: jetties, large marginal planting areas, beaches etc.

8. Streams running from water recycled from the pool should not be disproportionately large in relation to the pool. Remember that a stream needs an addition of at least 1/2 inch of water added to its surface to get it flowing, and this must come from the pool.

Not only this, there is a backlog of water that seems to get hidden in the system. This can mean a considerable loss of water from the pool once the stream is in full flood. The marginal plants in particular cannot stand the radical rise and fall in water level.

9. Electrics and electrical items need to installed to the correct National standards. Have them installed by, or at the very least, checked by a fully qualified electrician.

Stabilizing Your Pond

Your aim is to establish all the necessary ingredients for the complete cycle of life in your pond so that in being Interdependent, it all adds up to being a self sufficient little world.

If the pool is filled with fresh tap water and left to 'age' i.e. as the purifying chemicals evaporate or drop out and the water can sustain microscopic life, then a lot of the necessary ingredients will eventually arrive of their own accord. To ensure that this happens as soon as possible, in the right proportions and for there to be good cross section of all the right microscopic ingredients, leave the fresh water in your pool to stand for 3 days, then take 3 or 4 gallons of water from a pond you know that is evenly balanced, crystal clear and free from blanket weed. Pour this into your pool, and with the same effect as a yoghurt starter, you will find the environment will leap into action. This is good for pools with filters too.

Once the pool is full of water, after 3 to 10 days it willnearly always turn green. In normal circumstances leave it withthe plants in situ for the biological balance to establish itself.

Generally after a month in the growing season the water begins to clear. A reddish tinge is sometimes seen on the edge of the pool before it does so.

If cement lime has oozed out or run into the pond from areasyou were unable to treat with silglaze and has sent the pH up to unmanageable proportions then you have no alternative but to drain the pond and refill until the water stays with a pH that can sustain life adequately. Plants as well as fish are upset by excessively limey water but the thread algae, Blanket weed or Spirogyra loves these conditions, and you wouldnt want to encourage that would you ?

The Importance Of Plants

Before any animal life can arrive in your pond you must have a cross section of plant life insitu, ready, as a welcoming party. These will begin 'to process' the ingredients that are the result of death, decay and waste matter from individuals populating the pool.

Other gains from established plants will be shade that will inhibit the growth of algae at the same time as providing a place for the wild life of the pool to hide and spawn in.

Stocking Levels

Oxygenating plants:- Most important, without them the water will go green and stay green. Green water although harmless in itself is considered unsightly. It is caused by the microscopic single celled plantlife, algae as referred to above. Oxygenating plants can starve them out of existence by using up the light and minerals they need.

Oxygenating plants will provide oxygen for the bacteria in the bottom of the pool ( or the filter, if you feel it is necessary) that digest waste organic matter and dead algae. These break it up gradually and eventually leaving a by-product of minerals (nitrates) that are absorbed by all the plants for growth, hopefully leaving little for the benefit of algae. Allow 1 bunch per 2sqft of water surface.

Deep water aquatics :- the most well known is the Water Lily. At the height of the growing season, in order to deprive underwater algae of light and to help keep the water cool, half to two thirds of the surface of the pool should be covered with lily pads and floating foliage.

Lilies are gross feeders and therefore do a lot to use excess nutrients in the pond water. This does mean that some varieties grow exceedingly quickly and are unsuitable for smallpools.

Take advice from a grower on suitable varieties for your pond.
Generally - the cheaper they are, the more vigorous they are.
Be wary of giveaways.
Allow 1 Lilly for every 25sqft of pool surface.

Floating plants:- These too help to control algae by depriving them of light and using up their mineral resources. Some are frost tender e.g. Water Hyacinth and Water Lettuce. Others sink to the bottom of the pool to avoid the ice in winter e.g. Water Soldier and Frogbit. Allow 1 plant for every 10sqft of pool surface area.

Marginal plants:- These soften the edge and use up mineral resources, especially Reeds and Watercress. They provide secure cover and a vegetable jetty for ingress and exit of wild life. Early spring colour and the beauty of reflections come part and parcel with a certain amount of shade to the pool. They certainly help to keep the shallow regions around the edge of the pool cool enough to stop them being the perfect, warm breeding ground for algae. This is the problem created by beaches of pebbles or gravel, particularly if the pool becomes infested with Blanket weed algae (Spirogyra). Allow at least 1 for every 5sqft. Block plant large pools or ponds. Again be wary of 'give always'.

Stocking With Fish

Allow 1-2 inches of fish per sqft of surface area.
Fish are best transported in a plastic bag.

When introducing fish to your pool float the bag for 15-30 minutes in the pool so that the temperature can slowly adjust. Rolling down the lip of the bag forms a float for the bag that keeps it upright.

During the time the bag is floating in the pool, introduce several cupfuls of pool water so that the new water chemistry of the pool does not cause too much stress to the fish.

Apart from ordinary Goldfish, fish that are suitable for average pools of any size include: Red Comets (Sarasas), Shubunkins, Golden Orfe, Tench and Rudd. These will all happily live with one another.

All the above fish are quite content to share their lives with Koi Carp. However serious keepers of Koi Carp need to think in terms of a minimum depth of 3ft - preferably 5 to 6ft - with a proportionately large width and length.

Koi keepers very often have to think in terms of no plants or have them at least protected from the vandalism of the fish. Therefore because of the lack of the biological cycle in which plants form an essential link, and also because of the rapid metabolism of these potentially very large fish, a sophisticated filter system is essential in keeping Koi. They are not fish of extremely cold water and find cold winters stressful to say the least. When fish are stressed, then they are open to disease and parasites, and since Koi are such expensive fish, the only way to keep them with confidence is to employ all the quirks of pool design and filter technology at your disposal.

Wild Life

Wild pond life will generally arrive of its own free will. Very little is of direct harm to any fish or plants that you might want in the pond. In fact it all goes into the makeup of the interdependent existence that the fabric of pondlife has. Watching the tos and fros of this existence is one of the joys of owning a pool.

If wild life does not seem to be arriving soon enough, then any desire to stock your pond with any particular species from the wild should be curbed. If a friend or neighbour wishes to donate an excess of frog or toad spawn from their urban pool, that is quite acceptable and it is one of the ways of ensuring that you have a population of amphibians that will return to your pool. But if you want to be certain that any spawn taken from the wild is not from a protected species, then dont take any at all.

Freshwater shrimps, daphnae, larvae and other beasties that provide food for fishes will eventually find their way there but can be hurried along via the introduction of a few gallons of the 'starter' as described above.

Beatles, caddisflies, skaters and dragonflies will arrive uninvited and will stay if they approve. Some arrive in the mud on the roots of the plants you establish.

Wild or indigenous species of fish are best left in wild or conservation environments. Sticklebacks and minnows, if taken from the wild carry a lot of pests and disease, which may be latent on them but may cause an epidemic on more 'ornamental' fish. Besides this they can be a lot more aggressive than more interbred varieties (particularly when feeding), which in turn will cause stress and therefore more susceptibility to disease for domestic fish in a domestic environment.

If you already have a wild pond or conservation style pool, the reverse is the same. Introducing domestic fish can only lead to problems that will upset the environment.