As your garden starts to come alive after the dormant months of winter, now is the time to prepare your pond for the warmer weather to come. Here are some useful tips for Spring Pond Maintenance.

Step 1.Remove leaves and winter debris from the surrounding area to prevent them from being blown into the pond. Remove the netting you`ve left over the pond for the winter to keep the leaves out.

Step 2. Remove any dead vegetation or leaves from the pond. A pond vacuum will prove helpful for this task. Remove as much Blanket Weed as you can.

Step 3. Clip back dead foliage from your aquatic plants. If you keep them in their aquatic baskets like we do, trim back their roots too. Any repotting or dividing of plants should be done now, but take care not to disturb early flowering aquatics such as skunk cabbage.

Step 4.If your pond has been frozen for along time, a partial water change will be beneficial.

If your pond has significant debris and sludge build up (25mm or more) after the initial skimming and vacuuming, you should perform a complete water change. Sludge build up is a symptom of a more serious problem. It is telling us that the pond can’t keep its self-clean, meaning something is out of balance. Either, the pond filtration is under sized, oxygen and/or beneficial bacteria remain low, the fish load has outgrown the filtration system, the plant cover or proper mix of plants is deficient, or the debris has been allowed to build up and decay over a long period of time. Spring is a good time to identify and correct these issues. We can then enjoy the pond instead of spending time and money treating symptoms caused by an out of balance eco-system.

If you need to perform a complete water change, first set up a temporary holding tank for your fish. Use water from the upper half of your pond so as not to disturb the toxic gases from the sludge found near the bottom. The holding tank should be set in a shady area, with an aerator or pump to maintain oxygen levels, and the tank should be covered to prevent the fish from jumping out or predators from sticking their noses in.

When returning your fish to the pond, the water temperature needs to be within 1 degree centigrade of the temporary tank to prevent the fish from being stressed or going into shock. If the difference is greater than 2°C, the fish need to be placed in plastic bags with water from the temporary tank and floated in the pond for 10 to 30 minutes prior release. If the difference is 3°C or more in temperature difference, replace 25% of the water in the bag with pond water every 10 minutes until the temperature is within 2°C prior to release.

If your pond water appears a tea, brown, or black colour, it may be due to tannin released from leaves or sycamore seeds left in the water, a 50% water change is the quickest solution. Tannin is a substance found in plants and when released in water you will notice a tea to brown or black coloration. Leaves decomposing in the water, or rain water can soak leaves on a leaf net and act as a tea bag dripping water and tannin into the pond, or if a leaf heavy net drags in the water, tannin can also be released. Sycamore seeds in the spring time can also release tannin in the water.

Step 5. Check filters and reconnect pumps. If the filter media was not cleaned last autumn, they should be cleaned prior to starting up the system. Do not over clean the filter or use any form of soap, or bleach. This is the best time to inspect and replace old worn out filter material. If you have pipework that was disconnected over the winter or valves that were opened up, be sure to reconnect and make adjustments prior to turning on the pumps.

Step 6.Test your water quality. Pond water quality is extremely important and should be tested on a regular schedule using either a liquid reagent style test kit or quick and easy test strips. If Ammonia and Nitrites levels are higher than zero, an additional 25% water change should be done until the levels are reduced. If pH is outside the 6.5 to 8.5 range, use either a pH Up or pH down according to directions to bring the pH back into a safe range.

Step 7.Add important water treatments. Getting your pond’s beneficial bacteria levels up early in the season means fewer challenges later. Look for a liquid bacteria that works even in cooler temperatures promoting an ecological balance sooner. Later in the season a water clarifier is also a great product to use in combination with algal control products for a quicker clearing of the water.

Step 8. Ultraviolet (UV) maintenance. If you have an Ultraviolet light clarifier or filter to help prevent green water, the bulb needs to be replaced yearly and the quartz sleeve that protects the bulb needs to be cleaned. However, do not turn the UV unit on until the bacteria have had 48 hours to colonize on available surfaces within the pond and filter.

Step 9. Prepare for the return of the heron! Keeping your fish safe from Herons can be a challenge, but here are a couple of ideas that will help. There is always the fish line placed around the pond, or netting to interrupt their flight. But, providing a place for your fish to escape by building an underwater cave with some boulders and a flat rock are also award winning options. And don`t  forget the Motion Activated Sprinklers that are available.

Step 10. Fish feeding. You can begin feeding your fish when water temperatures remain at 10°C or higher. With water temperature at 10 to 18°C you can feed your fish once a week. With water temperatures 18°C or higher your regular feeding schedule can be resumed. Look for a fish food that is a high performance diet designed for growing fish, and fortified with spirulina and other marine ingredients for maximum colour. Colour food also enhances the vibrant colours and health of your fish. A cold water food is a wheat based diet ideal for feeding during colder periods

There is a multitude of highly technical and complicated advice on the web about pruning. This is my guide to pruning for beginners.

  A few basic pruning rules.

1. There are very few plants that will die from being pruned at the wrong time of year.

2. Prune when a plant has finished flowering, not before.

For instance, if you prune Forsythia in the autumn, it won`t flower properly in late winter / early spring.

3. Prune back to a `node` that is a branch, leaf or bud, to prevent leaving a stub which will die back and cause disease.

4. If you need a saw (and definately if it`s a chainsaw!) it`s not pruning, it`s butchery.

 Why prune?

Good maintenance. In a shrub border, plants are growing at different rates and it is important to not have one dominant species. In general prune so that there is `space` around each shrub.

And that`s it. Of course there is more to it to improve flower or increase fruit and I will be adding my thoughts to this in the coming months.

Fish and plants need very different things in the winter, but can be kept in top condition for the following season if the appropriate steps are taken.

When the water temperature falls below 10 degrees Centigrade, or whenever the fish start to lose interest in food, feeding should be eliminated.   Not only do goldfish and KOI not need to eat during the winter, it can actually be bad for them to be fed.

Fish depend on certain enzymes and bacteria in their digestive tract to break down fish food.  These enzymes and bacteria thrive in warmer months, but start to decrease substantially when the water temperatures start to drop.

This means that food can pass through the fish’s digestive tract undigested, and potentially cause blockages or start to decay inside the fish.  This can also promote bacterial infections.  So, for these reasons, do yourself (and your fish) a favour and resist the urge to keep feeding them.

Although wheat germ foods and special spring / autumn foods are formulated for easy digestion, they should only be fed in semi-cool water temperatures, and should also be stopped in water temperatures below 10 degrees.  The fish have plenty of fat stored up in their body from their summer-long feast to last them through until spring.

The other important element in keeping the fish healthy over the winter is to provide adequate gas exchange in the pond.  This means providing an outlet for toxic gasses to escape as organic pond debris like leaves and plants start to decay.

This also means allowing a way for oxygen to enter the water for the fish.   This can be done simply by preventing the surface of the water from freezing over completely.   We suggest using a pond deicer to do this.   These are easy to use, just plug it in and drop it in.  Ideally, pond owners would also add an air pump to provide adequate oxygen.

Floating De-icer

Some pond owners like to leave their pump / filter running during the winter, but we recommend that the pump and filter be shut off.

There are two reasons for this.  First, by running the pump, the pond water is actually being made colder to the fish who usually hibernate at the bottom of the pond where the warmer thermal layers are.  By circulating the water, the colder water near the surface is mixed with the relatively warmer water at the bottom, thus making it colder for the fish.

The other reason we recommend stopping the pump / filter is because it is difficult to do maintenance on the filter in the cold weather, so most people neglect cleaning the filter.  The filter will ultimately clog and put excess strain on the pump.  Or, in the case of external pressurized biological filters, an unexpected power failure can cause the pump to stop and the filter to freeze and crack because it is full of water.

There also seems to be a fair amount of confusion about what to do with the plants in the pond during the winter.  Again, by following several simple steps, pond owners can prepare their plants for optimal recovery in the spring.

Some plants, however, do not winter over and must be thrown out.  These include any of the floating plants like water hyacinths, water lettuce, floating fern, and any other non-potted floating plants.  Also, even some potted plants like tropical water lilies must be disposed of and replaced in the spring.

Most potted plants do winter over well, provided they are properly prepared.  We recommend that the pond owner take the time to trim the plants down as much as possible.  This means trimming / cutting any part of the plant that grows up above the rim of the pot.  This part of the plant will only die and decay in the pond in the winter, so it is best just to cut it off.  The roots or plant tuber, which is well insulated in the soil, should winter over fine if kept below the frost level of the pond.

For this reason, we also recommend lowering the pots down to the deepest part of the pond during the winter.  If the roots are exposed to extreme cold conditions, they will die and have to be replaced, so they should be at least 18″ below the surface of the water.  As an added precaution, we also recommend adding a de-icer to prevent freezing of the plant roots.

So, by following the steps outlined above, you can be sure that your pond will be ready for spring and all the pond life will be as healthy as possible.