Putting the Pond to Bed
If you have a water garden, your hardy water lilies have probably faded and are trying to get your attention.
That's their way of saying it's about time you put on your waders and put the garden to bed for the winter. Here are a couple of steps you can take now to help your water garden wake up refreshed next spring.
Pull their pots up from their pedestals bring them to the surface and snip off all that nasty gunky foliage.
You may see some half-inch-long green leaves emerging. Leave that stuff alone. That's next year's growth. Now clean out the rest of the organic material - leaves! - that you find, submerged or otherwise. Then set the pots down to the bottom of the pond for their wintry slumber.
We have koi in our pond and last year we got a large piece of flagstone and placed over the top of a couple of pots to make a cave and they loved it. We have an aerator which we run in the winter to stop the pond from completely freezing over and it was much nicer come spring.
11/17/2011 09:56:22 AM Report AbuseI still have tadpoles in my pond, I can't clean up the leaves unless I
11/18/2010 03:11:27 PM Report Abuseleave the koi as is. I've had koi for four years now and they've been okay. stop feeding them when temp reaches 40 degrees. I've been told to clean out the leaves from the pond, but the koi seem to like hiding under them. We'll see what happens.
11/18/2010 01:45:46 PM Report AbuseI have Koi in my pond this year. What do I do with them?
11/18/2010 12:43:34 PM Report AbuseThats it? There is alot more to getting your pond ready for winter.
11/2/2009 10:39:36 AM Report Abuse