Water Garden Calendar and Pond Care For Spring

On this webpage where months are referred to I mean those relating to conditions in the Northern Hemisphere climates. If you live in the Southern Hemisphere the seasonal conditions can be treated similarly but you obviously must change to the appropriate month when thinking in terms of weather. Consider these links

Spring Pond Keeping Calendar

Summer Pond Keeping Calendar

Autumn Pond Keeping Calendar

Winter Pond Keeping Calendar

Spring is considered to start in March in the UK and USA and to continue through until end May.

MARCH

you make an incorrect change.

Fishkeepers 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. you make an incorrect change.

If you havent 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 Month

If youve 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).
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.
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, thats all I can say for the moment, things will be revealed as time rolls on.
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.

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 didnt 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 youve only got yourself to blame when you switch it on and it dont work! So if you didnt 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 thats 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 backflush. If you havent 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 wont 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!

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 youve 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.

article supplied by Peter J May