The Water Garden Calendar, Get the Best Ideas on Planting and Gardening From January to December,

February

Here in the dismal UK the sun has begun to shine but it comes with cold air from the north and a thick layer of ice is back on all the pools. You would think the little world that seemed so active during the summer months was completely dormant. Not so, I was reminded of that three times this week.

First of all, one of the local district councils has put up its road signs warning of Toads Crossing. Suddenly, I realised that its the time of year those little amphibious monsters crawl out of their leaf heaps to get it on.

One of the gardeners best friends, they migrate in startling numbers to the place they developed as tadpoles to miniature toads. Females are always in short supply, so the adult males will attempt to mate with anything that moves including docile fish or another pair of mating toads. Sometimes there can be more than a dozen of males in a rolling ball in the pool - somewhere in the middle is a suffocating female. It is not surprising that the collective term for toads is A BUNDLE TOADS.

Although the water in the pool has stayed pretty much below 10C or 50F you might think that might be another reason for nothing going on. In fact that is warm enough for the blanket weed or Spirogyra to take advantage of the lack of competition. An old client of mine with a wildlife pond was inundated with this green cotton woolly thread form of algae. He has no filtration or even moving water and his pool is surrounded by chalky limestone that produces very hard water in the pool, and blanket weed just loves that. His only resort is to keep hooking it out with a lawn rake until the spring, when the rest of the pool plants kick into activity. The rest of the higher plant life will then prevent the blanket weed from getting a look in on the resources.

Even if you have of the resources of modern technology at your disposal, filters, chemical, U/V clarifiers and magnets on the water supply to the filter, once you have blanket weed it seems like you have got it for life. It does have its advantages if you can keep it under control, because it is always a ready vitamin rich snack for any of the vegetarians in the pool, especially the fish, and if you've got it, you will rarely get any other form of algae or if you do, then there is something seriously wrong in that environment.

Having said that there are some excellent products on the market that do remove the compounds in the water that help algae, and particular blanket weed, to thrive. They do tend to be expensive but they are completely harmless to fish, animals and plants alike. Come in to Blagdon Water Gardens to see what is available.

The Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris is resolutely pushing its way up. Whether it is a rock hard frozen bog area or sitting with its neck through an inch of ice in the margins, it is determined it going to get out and about before the rest of the mayhem starts in the water garden. In fact its new growth for the following season starts in October when everything else is dying down, and despite or the trials of winter, its little fleshy stems still manage to produce a golden display right at the beginning of spring at the end of March. The weather is usually still pretty dire then, so it is no wonder this has always been such a popular plant in this country, its bonny display encourages wishful thinking about warm balmy summers.

Seasonal Tips:

1. If you do have a filter in operation, make sure the pump is only turning over the surface water of the pool. Put the pump on the marginal shelf.

2. Keep it going until the temperature drops to 1 or 2C. Then turn the pumps off.

3. If the water freezes, dont be too worried for a couple days unless the pool is really dirty or overpopulated with fish. Rotting organic matter in the bottom of the pool will produce toxic gases that if they are trapped under the ice will poison the water. If this is the case melt a hole in the ice with hot water poured into a saucepan sitting on the ice. A hole in the ice will allow gaseous exchange. Never smash a hole in the ice. Unfortunately this is a favourite pastime for kids, especially other peoples. Ah well, Ill let you deal with that.

4. If you havent already done so, clear up dead leaves especially in the bottom of the pool before all amphibians start to spawn. Leave the detritus on the side of the pool for the sleepy beasties you've dredged up to make their way back home again.

5. Cut back, the marginal plants, trim the planting baskets from excessive growth. If all the growth seems on the outside and nothing in the basket, get ready to replant next month.

6. Look out for Herons, theyve got their eyes on your pool. Plastic herons won't deter them at this time of year. In fact they may do the opposite. Get out there yourself and mount an irregular patrol. All right?

Gardening  March

Fish keepers will all be getting itchy fingers, desperate to feed their beloved pets. The tough old goldfish can take anything you throw at them, but the Golden Orfe and especially the Koi Carp just cannot be fed until the temperature of the water is getting permanently above 7C (45F). Then between 7C and 10C(50F) only feed low protein food or wheat germ. It is only above 10C that things really get swinging underwater: oxygenators start seriously oxygenating; bacteria really get down to digesting organic matter and the fish metabolism really kicks into gear.

The last thing the fish need in their delicate state, after several months in repose, is a shower of toxic inconsumable fish food from the pool surface that will sink to the bottom to add a work load to the already pressurized balance of the pool environment. Uneaten fish food is probably the biggest the pollutant that regularly gets into the average pool, so this months big tip is to arm yourself with a thermometer and a net. The thermometer will give you the go ahead on the right temperature to start feeding.

Use a good quality floating fish food that is appropriate for the time of year and feed it in small amounts, only enough that the fish can eat in a minute or two. Any that is uneaten, net it off. For quality fish food call in at Blagdon Water Gardens to survey the huge selection for every requirement.

If you haven't been inundated with frogspawn this may be a good opportunity to sort out major mechanical problems before the season starts in earnest.

Top Tips For The

1. If you've been dragging out that blanket weed all month and hoiking out oxygenating weed along with it, it may be as well to replant a batch of it. Break of some clean pieces from some over grown stems and push them into baskets in bunches of 5, 25 bunches to a basket and place it on bricks about a foot below the surface. Once it is obviously growing, lower it to 2ft (600cm).

2. You can sort out those marginal plants if they need replanting. No real hurry but get it done before the middle of April. Just empty out the baskets, divide with a knife of spade and replant the portions with healthy growing tips in a good heavy garden loam. Wait a while for the lilies until they are in full growth and the heavier the loam the better for them. Top off with pea shingle. In new ponds they will need a good feed of a slow release pellet each.

3. Keep your eyes peeled for any fish diseases, sores, or things hanging off or on and treat accordingly. Because this is such a huge subject, that's all I can say for the moment, things will be revealed as time rolls on.

4. Really there isnt a huge amount for the water gardener to do as long as he or she can spot potential problems before they arise. So basically this just means a watchful eye over your precious creation.

Gardening in April

Machinery and Sods Law walk hand in hand through the history of our tormented lives, and pond pumps, filters and U/V clarifiers are that sort of machinery. Waterfalls and fountains can be included. If you didn't put your pool or pond to bed at the end of the year by cleaning and checking the pump, the filter and the U/V then you've only got yourself to blame when you switch it on and it don't work! So if you didn't do it then, and even if you did or you seemed to have escaped the hand of fate for this year, still give it a thorough check out. Check the trip switch on the outside electrics first.

Then have a look at the pump. Take it apart and give it good clean. If it is one of those cylindrical cellar type pumps with the open grill round the bottom, you will probably find it gunged up with tadpoles. Not a pretty sight. (You might want to devise a sort of prefilter - but that's a story for another day).

Work your way to the U/V and change the bulb. From thence to the filtration unit and see what delights have been nestling in that throughout the winter. The very least it will need is a back flush. If you haven't got this facility, you will have to get all the filter medium out and give it a quick wash through, with rain water or pond water. I have a leaky bucket that is almost like a colander that I rinse the filter medium in.

If the filter has been working fairly non-stop through the winter you will be surprised at how dirty it is. This was because the biological activity in the filter would have slowed to virtually nothing at low temperatures, but the filter would still be working effectively mechanically. This would mean a build up of sludge without it being digested.

If you have a stream or waterfall, check this for leaf litter and silt build up. The dry spell we have just experienced is a great time for spotting leaks and overspill in the surrounding soil. People with preformed waterfall units will need to check that their units are still well supported underneath as they very often get undermined in heavy rain. If the stream or waterfall has been constructed on made up ground, before the undergrowth around the stream build up, check around the inlet to make sure there is no overspill or consolidation that has caused the back of the waterfall to drop down.

Apart from maintenance (or lack of it) problems, the main thing is the blanket weed, spirogyra, cotton weed whatever. It is the candyfloss type of algae that gets a start on the rest of the plant life in the pool and just loves that bright sunlight.

It also loves water with a high pH. So if you reduce that with proprietary chemicals, although I have a client experimenting with vinegar, you will find that any other treatments are a lot more effective. Most aquatic suppliers have some remedy. Barley straw is effective for certain periods as long as the water is very well oxygenated and the straw is changed at regular intervals of not more than 10weeks.

Certain of my colleagues tell me that Barley straw actually pollutes the water in order to clear it and that there are compounds on the market that remove nutritional elements that blanket weed in particular thrive on. Phosphates are the main culprits and many of these come from run off from the surrounding soil. Once again these remedies won't work in situations where the pH is above 8.5. When the product comes at well over 30 a tub for one seasons treatment, you dont want to be effectively pouring money down the drain just because you pool has got hard water.

Plants of the Month

On the margins

The Marsh Marigolds (Caltha palustris and all the species and varieties) are still at it. Brilliant.

The Water Forgetmenot (Myosotis palustris) is also making waves of blue around the pond.

Also there is the Golden Club (Oronitium aquaticum)

In the deep water

The old South African stew ingredient, the Water Hawthorn, Aponogeton distachyos, is flowering its socks off. An amazing plant that comes up from unlimited stygian depths to perform at the most ludicrous times of the year. It still thinks its down in the Cape, nestled in the Fynbos looking up at Table Mountain.

Thinking of bogs, the American Skunk Cabbage is up. Lysichiton Americanum, it looks almost too alien for our water gardens. Its big spathe of a flower is like a starters flag in a motor race and a timely reminder that things have got into gear and now were cruising!

Seasonal Tips

If you are contemplating a major clean out, this is one of the best times to do it, although personally Id have done it before the tadpole explosion. If you do it, rescue as much wildlife as possible and leave any debris draining away on the side over night so that beasties can make their way back into the pool. Also treat any fresh tapwater with pool conditioner.

The plants will be coming into new growth. There is still time to divide and replant if you want. You can also feed with a slow release pellet in each basket.

Pool lights can come back out now.

Check the water quality. Many serious fish keepers will do a partial water change of up to one third in order to dilute any build up of salts and chemicals they may have been adding.

As the water temperature gets nearer to 10C (50 F) you can start feed the fish their normal food. A bit of live daphne would be a special treat or chopped worms, yummy!

Gardening in May

For those of you desperate for inspiration on the water garden design line check out the Royal Horticultural Society website at www.rhs.org.uk . The RHS organise all the biggest shows in the UK, starting the season off with the Malvern Spring Flower Show. The Malvern Spring Flower Show has just happened but the gem of gems of all flower shows in the world is the Chelsea Flower Show starting on the 20th May. They will have all the major gardens on display on the website and some of them will be in 360degree-zoom-in- zoom-out mode. The Hampton Court Flower Show at the beginning of July is particularly inspirational for water gardeners because there is a special section of display gardens that are exclusively water gardens. As flower shows go, it is probably the biggest in the world.

Jobs for the MOnth

Keep your eyes peeled for the herons. A lot of my customers and clients are having problems with herons as building developments of flood plains forces them to exploit new habitats. If your fish have disappeared from view and lurk shyly in the bottom of the pool and dont feed, suspect you've had a visit. Look into heron scarers at Blagdon Water Gardens.

Now you can go to town adding new plants to the pool. A good time to get lilies and or divide them now.

Check new plants for clusters of snails eggs. You dont want them to end up as fodder for these pests. If you are going to have snails, get the ramshorn shaped ones. There are much less likely to consume your water hawthorn and oxygenators.

Watch for fish spawning. If the pool is highly populated, you could rescue some and hatch it in a tank. It may be lying in amongst the oxygenators.

Now is the time that everything seems literally burgeoning and if the problem of algae does not begin to subside if you do something about it now, you may be able to push the balance over to a more favourable position. Start with ecological solutions like eco-algicides, barley straw and extra plants before the heavy chemicals and the mechanical technology. If you live in a hot sunny part of the world then you will have had to resort to biofilter technology as a routine. I will go into this a little more some time in the future, so be patient especially if you are just starting up. It can take anything up to 6 or 8 weeks to get that old nitrogen cycle rolling.

Plants looking good are the Water Hawthorn (Aponogeton distachyos), Bog Bean (Menyanthes trifoliate), the foliage of Houttynia cordata in all its forms is looking good and theres good looking Hostas out in the bog garden along with the Globe Flower (Trollius europaeus). The double Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris plena) is following in the wake of its cousin. Lots more to come by the end of the month including some of the Irises.

Gardening June

If you've have a potentially good harvest of froglets from tadpoles this year, now is the time that they will start to emerge from the pond and sit indecisively amongst the surrounding sward of lawn, so take care with your mower as you fly by the pool or fire up the barbeque in anticipation of a feast of mini frogs legs!

Of course this is the time of the year that Aquatic retailers eagerly await the return of their early season customers who only bought a pool and a few plants. They return in their droves looking for submersible pumps for fountains, waterfalls and filters. As the weather warms up the new fish start gasping at the surface despite them following all the recommendations of getting in the right number of plants and especially oxygenators in the water.

Allow one bunch of oxygenators per 0.2 sq m (2 sqft) of pool surface

Allow one lily for every 2.3 sq m (25 sqft) of pool surface.

Marginals: allow at least one plant for every 0.5sq m (5 sqft).

But in a new pool especially with Koi carp and even if it has a filter system, if the fish have been added before the whole system has matured, the pool has to go through a phase where the ammonia level rises before the bacteria that break down that ammonia get well established.

Now it is a good idea to add one or two fish to start the whole process going because it is their faeces and fish food that produces the ammonia that the bacteria feed on, but these are Kamikaze fish in the sense that the environment you have introduced them to is going to go through some pretty unhealthy phases before it gets robust enough to support a full population of fish at 2inches per square foot of surface area.

The worst bit is when then the ammonia is partly broken down to nitrite chemicals and you have a cocktail that is poisonous and damaging to the gills of the fish. This is when they start gasping. So the best action is to follow your instincts and get plenty of oxygen in there. Large partial water changes are best, but running water in hard from a hose is also good. The oxygen in the water will sustain the fish and the bacteria in the bottom of the pool, or the filter if you have one, with the essential oxygen they need to make the chemical break down. The next phase is the break down of the nitrites to nitrates, which is then greedily absorbed by the plants.

So if you havent got a fountain or a waterfall and you have some precious fish recently installed, think about getting one. And if you have created this watery habitat for the sake of some beloved fish, then seriously think about a biological pool filter, especially if it gets as warm as last year here in the UK.

The other deciding factor maybe that without a filtration system, your pool needs to be two thirds covered by plants at this time of year in order to maintain a balance and provide anywhere near clear water. Allow 4 to 6 weeks for a pool to really establish its microbiology.

There are proprietary pool starter mixes available to get things going more quickly, or you could try borrowing a couple of gallons of water from a friends pool that you have so long admired. Adding this will be like a yoghurt starter. Apparently spitting into the pool can have the same effect! The bacteria we carry in our mouths are pretty much the same as those found in the bottom of a pond!

Jobs for the Month

1. Dead head early flowers like the Marsh Marigolds and irises. Now begins the period where water gardeners look enviously at their friends with bog gardens that can work as a spectacular backdrop to a pool. The flower and foliage affects that can be achieved here carry on much further into the season. Even now some plants are only just beginning to come into flower. Things like the Day Lily Hemerocallis, Rodgersia, Ligularia and Hosta. However water gardeners still have their lilies to enjoy and these can still be planted.

2. This is the best time of year for planting out lilies. Some of the old time water gardeners would only think of planting lilies at this time of year.

3. Look for pests on leaves. Aphids can be abundant on lily leaves and marsh marigolds. Knock them of with a harsh sprayer or a finger and thumb. The fish will soon gobble them up.

Gardening in Joy

If the weather gets really hot and the water in the pool is warming up, look to see if the fish are getting lethargic. If the fish look as though they are in distress, there is an emergency. A partial water change of a third will do them the world of good, or at least blast fresh tap water in there from a height and let the pool just overflow. Ensure you have some water running into the pool, either a fountain or a stream.

If it is a really well-established pool, and a little (dare I say) sludgy on the bottom, the fish in these pools will be suffering the most, especially in the evenings. What makes the situation worse is that water will not retain oxygen very easily the warmer it gets. The bacteria in the sludge will be using up the oxygen, and any oxygenators, although they plug along at their sweet level during the day, come night-time they begin take in oxygen as well. If there are Koi in there, they will be using up the resources like nuclear subs and will be the first to be panicking on the surface.

July is good for the late season marginal plants and the march of the bog brigade. And of course there are the lilies. Most of the real wet footed marginals have done their thing by now.

There is still the big Pickerel weed and Lythrum is blazing away, and the demur Flowering Rush both competing with the big grasses. In the bog there are the Ligularia, Astilbes, Hemerocallis or Day Lilies. Hostas are flowering and the Bistorts are looking good. There are spectacular displays of Primula florindiae and P viallii and yellow loosestrife and soon there will be the Schizostylis to wind things up. Meanwhile variegated and yellow grasses keep up the brightness and Gunnera and Rheum palmatum provide the big green backdrop. The Hampton Court Palace Flower show is the place to catch some new ideas. And what a venue!

What should be happening at this time of year

Leeches are getting pretty big and pretty sassy at this time of year. So try to get a good look to see there arent any hanging off your fish. A very dilute salt bath will see to them of if you cannot bear to screw them of.

If you've got a bog garden make sure there none of those big weeds getting a foothold into it. And make sure it is well watered. You ought to have a tube going right down into it thats perforated with holes. This helps watering in the hot and dry, getting the water down to the roots where it is needed.

NOW is the time to thin those oxygenators if they are getting out of hand. Not in Autumn and not in Spring.

Plants that need a good long growing season to get going can be sown from now on. Some experts recommend that it is time to sow the seed of Tetragona waterlilies. It would also be good time to sow the likes of Marsh Marigolds (Caltha palustris) or Ragged Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi).

If it looks as though there are small fish that may get eaten, rescue them. Keep them in a tank and feed up until they are bigger.

And if you are going on holiday and you were going to get the neighbours to feed the fish while you were away. Dont. Let the fish starve for a week or two. It will do them good. Unless your neighbours are experienced and successful fish keepers they will always overfeed for fear of underfeeding. The result will be disease and algae and God knows what. Leave it to God. He organises nice fat flies and things for this time of year.

Gardening in August

So what should you have been doing in the water garden in August. In the UK most books will tell you sit back and relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour, but it can get so hot in the UK year that any mismanagement of the water garden will come back to haunt the owners. Over feeding and over stocking becomes apparent when the fish are gasping for oxygen in the warm water.

Water cannot absorb oxygen so readily at warmer temperatures. If there is overfeeding and fish food rotting on the bottom of the pool, a vicious cycle of ammonia production starts up as it begins to rot. Any ammonia in the water is bad news, especially for Koi carp, for which ammonia is a deadly poison.

The problem is that they exude ammonia as a waste product through their anus and their gills. They do this more when they are stressed, and what is more, the presence of ammonia makes them stressed, overcrowding makes them stressed and lack of oxygen makes them stressed, so once ammonia levels start to build up you can be in a snowball situation.

Lack of oxygen also slows down the activity of the essential bacteria in the bottom of the pool as well as in the biological filters that are capable of breaking down the ammonia, and so the production of the poison goes on unchecked. If you(a) live in a warm country, (b) have small pools well stocked with fish, (c) prefer to see your fish than have masses of plant life in the pool, a biological filter system with an incorporated Ultra Violet Clarifier is pretty much essential.

What should go on with those bacteria in the bottom of the pool in breaking down the waste and organic compounds in the water is essential to the well being of the whole pool, with a biological filtration system you have a turbo version of pool bottom at your control at the touch of a switch.

Nowadays the filtration boxes have evolved into small systems working under pressure, which can be hidden out of sight at ground level and that can be serviced virtually by a twist of a lever.

Blagdon Water Gardens stock several models from Two major manufacturers.

[ EMERGENCY REMEDY: Hard spray of tap water from a height into the water, letting the pool over flow. And or one third water-change with dechlorinator added]

Hopefully the friends you had looking after the pool when you were on vacation didnt over feed the fish. If they did they only gave enough for the rascals to consume in 5 minutes and netted off the excess.

N.B. Red leg in frogs thrives in water low in oxygen and high in organic matter.

September

Now September is a time for clearing off decaying vegetation. Some of the marginals could have been cut back to one third and may have flowered again.

Koi keepers want to be feeding fish with good quality food to build them up for the winter.

You can collect offcuts from the plants if you want to propagate them. Just pull them off or cut them neatly as they emerge from a basket. If they have developed root hairs then they will be guaranteed to establish in any good heavy loam set in a well-drained pot sitting in about 2inches, 5cm of water.

It may be time to replace tired and overgrown plants in the marginal baskets next month, so these will be a useful replacement.

Lilies should be the main attraction now along with the Fringe lily, Nymphoides peltata. A few bog plants like the Ligularias, the Lobelias and Astilbes may be putting on a show. This is when the robust foliage plants like the Hostas, Rodgersias,Rheums, Peltiphyllum and Petasites come into their own.

Gardening in October

This is probably the most important month in the UK for keeping on top of things water garden and gardening wise, so what should be done? It will be getting noticeably colder by the day and leaves will have been falling for some time. Dry weather means an earlier fall than normal, therefore for ponds surrounded by trees the leaf nets should come out in September. For those ponds too big to be netted, a bit of netting off the surface and a bit of investigative dredging all helps to delay the day of a big clear out. Of course if the smell and the evidence on the dredging is that that day has now arrived then this is probably one of the most opportune moments to clear out as long as it stays mild that is.

If the marginal plants in the baskets dont look too over grown you can trim off the adventitious growth poking out the sides and try growing these on in separate containers, either to replace your old stock at a later date or as a present for someone. Any serious replanting can be left till spring.

If you are going to do a big clear out, dont leaves it to late otherwise all the frogs in the bottom of the pool will resent the upheaval and the plants, particularly the oxygenators, won't get settled in properly before it gets seriously cold. Also if you contemplate a big clearout, if the water is good, save as much of it as possible. Keep any fish or good beasties in it until then operation is complete.

Netting the pool or pond may be a bit difficult if the marginals are still at full height, so this is the time to cut them back. Wild life and conservation pool owners usually prefer to leave the growth of poolside plants as cover for the wildlife toing and froing. A further quandary for fish keepers is that, although the tall poolside fronds of grasses and reeds waving in the autumn gales look attractive, they are also the perfect cover for herons. There is a perfectly acceptable compromise, however, cut the plants back to one third. This is good gardening practice because it means that those plants that were setting seed now divert their energies into food storage for next year. It reduces any risk of disease or over-wintering of pests, but also of course it diminishes the spray of unwanted seed all over the pool and garden. For instance did you know that there are between 175,000 and a quarter of a million viable seeds in your average Cats Tail/Reed Mace/Typha latifolia seed head and every teeny weeny little flower on a Water Plantian produces something like 40 or 50 seeds, which adds up to a quite a few thousand for every inflorescence stem.

With the plants cut back to one third, they make quite useful support and grip for the net.

As the temperature starts to approach 10C feed the fish less and less. Koi need only have special high protein winter food or wheat germ. This is more easily digestible. At 7C cease feeding altogether. They may still take food, by force of habit, but it won't be digested, only sit in their gut for the rest of the winter. Any uneaten food remains a time bomb of pollution ready to be set off in the spring as it begins to warm up and when the fish are at their lowest ebb.

Back to plants. Any soppy frost tender plants need to be rescued. You can plant up water hyacinths into soil and keep them in a frost-free greenhouse. Water Chestnuts and Frogbit need to be saved in their little nut form, particularly important to watch out for if you are having a bit of a cleanout. Any fancy frost tender lilies, like the Lotus, need rescuing too.

If you have seriously been considering building another pool, a waterfall, stream or such like, now is the time to get it done. Plan it and do it in one great swoop and you will have forgotten the pain of it by Christmas and all the evidence of the turmoil will be gone by spring. So what about it? This is the season for sorting. After Christmas, forget it. It all becomes a bit too much effort then until we are kissed by the faint, fair flickers of spring.

Gardening in November

In the UK, normally the season of mellow fruitfulness is over and the feeling and look of a grey blanket settles over everything. A hot summer and a rapid temperature change produces a spectacular autumn display of colour. With the on coming cold the pools, ponds and water gardens will have definitely gone to sleep. So if the water has cooled below 7C, dont feed your fish, especially the Koi, and between 7 and 10C only feed your Koi either wheat-germ or some other top quality winter feed.

Many people who have tall grassy plants around the pool and who havent cut them back are congratulating themselves because there is still cover for the wildlife that is still moving in and out of the pool, unable to settle down, but also it looks very good. In a dryish year the likes of Cyperus longus, Sweet Galingale and the indigenous species of Carex or sedges produce quite autumnal blaze. Meanwhile the scented rush, Acorus calamus and its tufty variegated cousin Acorus gramineus stay evergreen.

If you do decide to cut back the undergrowth, cut it right down to water level. Leave the likes of Acorus and the Carex Bowles Golden unless they are looking particularly sorry for themselves.

Now assuming that November does actually come up trumps with some seasonal weather we should be thinking in terms of the normal routine of cleaning out pumps and removing altogether in cold districts and storing away.

If there is a biological filter, the filter pump should be repositioned onto the marginal shelf so that just the top few inches of water are being turned over, rather mixing up the whole lot. As water gets to around 4C, it becomes its most dense and sinks to the bottom of the pool. Fish are quite content to live down in this water that is oxygen rich.

If the water were to get any colder it would rise up in the pool (contrary to any physical behaviour of any other liquid or even water at higher temperatures) and as it approached the magical 0C it would turn into the solid that we know as ice. This naturally enough is not to fishes liking. So, if we are turning over the whole volume of the pool through a filter or waterfall and the cool extremes at the surface, we would find the whole system cooling down like refrigerator, down to the temperatures at the surface. So try to keep the lower reaches of the pool undisturbed.

As things get colder, the biological filter is operating less and less on a biological level. If conditions freeze then the filter needs to be stopped. When things warm up, and you turn the filter back on, it will be like a two slug Russian Roulette as to whether it will or will not deposit toxic filth into the pond, at a time when it least can cope. So the best bet here is to clean it out now. Clean out the filth in the bottom with rain or pool water and rinse out the sponges and the filter medium. If you have an ultra violet clarifier that is easily detached, bring that in or make sure it is empty of water.

If the pool does ice over, dont break the ice with a hammer. This knocks the fish senseless. Two or three days ice won't do the fish any harm. If however there is a lot of muck in the bottom of the pool and there may be a build up of noxious gases in this time, sit a pan of hot water on top of surface until it melts a nice hole. This will enable any build up of gas to be released. It will also relieve the stress the ice may be causing on the fabric of the pool liner or its structure. These are the two reasons many people float something soft and rubbery in the pool as a guard against mild freezing.

Twenty years ago, a friend of mine called Charles Maplethorpe invented a device that was a ring of polystyrene that held a small round aquatic plant basket of pebbles in the centre. The pebbles were half submerged and cocooned in the insulating polystyrene float that formed a frost-free link with the water and the outside air. This worked right down to surprisingly low temperatures and sold in the thousands for years until it lost its credibility one year of extremes temperatures when pools froze solid.

If it does get really cold, take Lobelia cardinalis under cover. By the way, if you've invested in any slightly exotic plants like Cannas or floaters like Eichornia crassipes Water Hyacinth (for those of you in the US and SA- yep! They actually grow them on purpose in the UK.) and Pistia stratiotes, Water Lettuce, take them into a frost free greenhouse and grow them in a tray. Water Hyacinth can actually be planted up in a pot to make it more winter hardy.

Plants flowering at this time of year? The hardy South African Aponogeton distachyos- the water hawthorn, and in the bog the other plant from around there, Schizostylis coccinea, once commonly referred to as the Kaffir Lily, now it is considered more politically correct to refer to it as the River Lily. It is a fantastic show at any time of year, let alone blazing away in the dull washed-out blear of the sad grey English garden in winter.

Keep warm and dry.

Gardening and  December January

What needs to be done with the water garden? Nothing. It is asleep. What has been done that needs to be done can now wait. As long as it is cold enough and the water is below 5C, everything in it is blissfully unaware of everything, so dont disturb it. After all you hate to be disturbed during your slumbers. Instead, appreciate the garden in its winter dress. Get into the Christmas spirit and brighten your house and the faces of your friends and neighbours with a few of the indoor plants that we have come to associate with this time of year.

Jobs Left Undone May be Bonus

In the first two or three years after planting, the more grassy marginals, particularly the Carex and Cyperus still look good in early winter. As everything else dies back to ground level, the clumpy grasses move in the wind, lending animation to an otherwise static scene.

The other tall marginal plants that you have failed to cut back may pay unexpected dividends if we get any hard frosts. Fronds of all herbaceous plants and some shrubs look stunning in winter sunlight covered in an icy hoar.

What is more, even the most humble reed that has run to seed will provide excellent emergency rations for small birds and will help provide cover for any wildlife that needs a mid-sleep sip of water.

You may be able to use some of these seed heads in a dry plant display. A vogue that is set to return in force now people are beginning to forget the amount of dust that dried plants seem to attract. The reed mace (Typha angustifolia) and even the Norfolk Reed (Phragmites australis) can be put to ornamental use. But beware they can be as much as a time bomb indoors as out, because at a certain times of dryness and humidity they can just deposit their seed head like an exploding dumper truck. Also impress upon any resident cats that a reed mace (bulrush) frond is not their Christmas present. To them it looks like a cross between a barbequed anorexic mole and a mouse kebab and definitely something to be torn apart, purely for scientific research of course!

Conservatory Owners Pleased

If you were one of those people that decided to build a conservatory over your water garden as a result of being lured into the delights of exotic water garden plants then things are possibly still up and running. There is a limit to how much heat you can afford to pump into these things and you may have opted to settling for it to be just a frost-free zone and have let things wind down for the winter. Even so if you have been growing the fascinating Nelumbo or Lotus water lilies you may had some flower. If there were any remaining seed heads you may want to dry them. They make a fascinating focal point in any dried flower arrangement.

All Tided Up and Battened Down For Winter?

Pond-wise, if you are cleaned out, dredged up, cut back and neatly netted for winter, now is the time you can appreciate another role the water garden can play in your garden, and that is as a source of light and reflection. A backdrop helps or alternatively a view to the horizon with a frame set by plants or landscaping ornaments set either side.

If you have good structure to the landscaping in your garden it becomes most apparent now, whether it is a formal or informal. So if there is no fear of herons, remove the net once all the leaves have fallen to reveal the unexploited qualities of your water garden.

If it snows and settles on an icy pond, brush as much off as you can to let some light down into the pool and remember dont break the ice. Melt it with a pan of hot water sitting on the surface.

Or switch on a pool heater to maintain a hole in the ice for gaseous exchange. Either way, melt it dont break it. This is particularly important for koi and or any birds that might appreciate a drink, especially ducks.

Published with permission of Peter May, for more visit  ...http://www.linklux.com/ ..