Care to weigh in on cutting back during pond cleaning?

[bagsmom]

Hey, all! I'm going to do a spring cleaning on my pond today. I haven't done anything with it in about four years. I'm not a proponent of frequent pond cleaning but I really do need to do something this year. There is so much settled mulm on every surface, you can't see any rocks or anything.
The question is: should I cut back all the plants really low, to make the cleaning process easier? And will they all come back up as the weather warms? The bacopa is coming back, but there is a lot of icky stuff from the winter underneath. Everything is currently growing. I even have lilies blooming!
I really am a fan of the ecosystem pond and like to leave Mother Nature alone whenever possible. But I also want good water quality for the fish and I know that rotting debris can affect that.
It's not exactly a warm day today. Not yet anyway. I might regret my decision to "get in."

 

[GBBUDD]

Pond vac ?

 

[bagsmom]

Pond vac ?

I called my local pond store to see if they would rent one. They don't do that. Sooooo. Given that we have a graduation party next weekend and I'm really trying to focus on making things look good on the surface -- all over the yard -- I decided to NOT do the big clean up. I took the net off, cut back things I could reach from the side of the pond, and turned off the pump. I opened the gate valve to the bottom of the waterfall and let it drain out. Then I cleaned the pad in the skimmer. I plugged the pump back and put my hose on "jet." I hosed the crap out of everything, stirring up all the mulm and gunk, letting the pump pull it in and suck it out of the waterfall drain (with the gate valve open.). The fish were in HEAVEN! They love it when everything is all stirred up like that. I drained and hosed a little while - until my skimmer sucked dry -- Oooops! Just for a second! It was ok. Then I added dechlorinator and refilled the pond. It made a big difference! The fish are enjoying picking around in everything and I can see the rocks again. For right now, this is good enough!