Bought a house with a (neglected) pond

Joined
May 20, 2014
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Hello everyone,

I bought and moved in recently to a new house where no one lived for about 5 years, and so the beautiful pond in the garden has been long neglected. However, there are living plants, fish, frogs, flowers, salamanders... even a Lotus flower!
It's the first garden and pond ever in my life so I feel a little overwhelmed when thinking of tidying it up.

Basically where I would like to start is with all the straw that is growing in the pond and clearly taking over it. Since I don't know much about ponds I didn't want to just try to pull it out in case that it's really hard rooted in the bottom and it would ruin something.

I hope you manage to figure something out for me from the pictures. I will try to add some more/clearer pictures later on.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2752.JPG
    IMG_2752.JPG
    295.5 KB · Views: 344
  • IMG_2883.JPG
    IMG_2883.JPG
    390.3 KB · Views: 366
  • IMG_2885.JPG
    IMG_2885.JPG
    251.3 KB · Views: 345
  • IMG_2533.JPG
    IMG_2533.JPG
    327.5 KB · Views: 357
  • IMG_2534.JPG
    IMG_2534.JPG
    286.4 KB · Views: 315
Joined
Oct 9, 2012
Messages
6,275
Reaction score
2,817
Location
Plymouth
Hardiness Zone
7a
Country
United Kingdom
With alot of work this pond could be made beautifull again but it all depends on what you want for the pond i;e the simplest thing would be to keep ot as a wildlife pond.
Or you could strip everything out of the pond plant wise see what you have then think about keeping either koi or goldfish.
The working parts of the pond i'e waterfall pump etc would have to be checked out and perhaps removed , worst case senario is the liner has a leak and so would have to be removed and a new one laid in its place .

Dave
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jul 29, 2013
Messages
3,307
Reaction score
7,267
Location
Rhode Island, USA
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
6a
Country
United States
Welcome, you have a little work in front of you but it looks very doable. Dave has given some good advise as far as pulling plants, that usually does not do damage just do not use tools to do it and watch out for roots under the edging
 

addy1

water gardener / gold fish and shubunkins
Moderator
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
44,338
Reaction score
29,089
Location
Frederick, Maryland
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
blue_couch.gif
to our group! Agree with the above info^^^ use no tools pulling the plants. I would also recommend you put on some heavy work gloves while doing it. Grasses make a lot of cuts when pulling them, protect your skin

If you have a serrated knife, that is the best to cut the grass roots, just make sure you only cut up, never down.
 
Joined
May 20, 2014
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Thanks everyone so far! I'm definitely not planning on removing everything and starting from zero (and I would actually prefer not to have any fish!) so to start I'll definitely try pulling out some of that grass. It's actually quite dense growing so not sure how to go about it but I'll give it a try! The pond is so much bigger than it seems but the grass has just taken over the half of it! :(

Is the liner that black material that covers the ground and sides? That's what I'm afraid of damaging if I pull roots out really.
Since I have just bought the house and have many costs, and unfortunately the pond doesn't really get priority, I will have to concentrate for the timebeing on the things I can do myself without spending money on materials/pumps/filters/workforce. Of course I'd just love to call some pond company and let them do everything... haha :D
 

addy1

water gardener / gold fish and shubunkins
Moderator
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
44,338
Reaction score
29,089
Location
Frederick, Maryland
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
Start at the edge of the grass, see if the roots went though the liner, yes it is the black thing on the bottom and sides. If they did not just start at the side of the clump, remove a little at a time. I do that when working on land grasses, a little at a time and a lot easier to remove. I use a serrated knife on my land grasses, and even on the pond iris. Just make sure the blade is pointing to the sky when you go to saw through some of the roots.
 
Joined
May 20, 2014
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Oh goodness for such a garden newb as me this all sounds so hard!! I hope I manage... haha
 

addy1

water gardener / gold fish and shubunkins
Moderator
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
44,338
Reaction score
29,089
Location
Frederick, Maryland
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
Take your time, it has been this way for a while, it will last until you decide you have the time and desire to tackle it.
Like my one sister says...............how do you eat an elephant?........................one bite at a time.
 

sissy

sissy
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
Messages
33,086
Reaction score
15,702
Location
Axton virginia
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
7A
Country
United States
Welcome Are you sure the grasses are actually growing in the pond or on the edge and have been left go and grew into the pond in search of water .That is not going to be an easy task but if you get started before they really get started growing it should be a little easier
 

j.w

I Love my Goldies
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Messages
32,946
Reaction score
20,252
Location
Arlington, Washington
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
USDA 8a
Country
United States
bananana
What a job! Just take it one step at a time. It looks like it could be a nice pond to enjoy eventually :)
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
30,780
Messages
508,558
Members
13,042
Latest member
lucaryan

Latest Threads

Top