Fall Pond Care Tips

We can't believe Fall has come upon us already. We love the leaves changing, tastes of pumpkin & apple and the smell of Autumn but hate the thought of having to close the pond!

Here are a few tips to make closing your pond easier:

1. Use water gardening gloves: the water temperatures are not always conducive to pulling out the pump, cleaning out the algae and cutting back the plants but wearing pond gloves helps keep your hands/arms warm and clean.

2. Maintain your bacteria: Keeping up with bacteria throughout the season will help reduce the amount of sludge build up at the bottom of your pond which will help for an easier closing process.

3. Remove all the debris you can: Using a Pond Shark with a deep net and double sided opening will allow you to scoop out the leaves and debris at the bottom of the pond while the rake will help pull off any dead leaves. Rent one of our pond vacuums to clean the pond fully before shutting it down for the winter. Any sludge or debris that is left at the bottom of the pond will decompose and become toxic to the fish. In Central New York, we have a Pond Service Technician we can send out to your home with our stainless steel professional vacuum to clean out your pond of debris.

4. Cover your pond before the leaves begin to fall: Pond netting is great for keeping leaves and debris from falling into the pond. We can custom cut the length for you and offer different widths that will surely cover your pond. Also, don't forget your stream! If you are concerned about bending plants with a leaf net we do offer a dome leaf net by Atlantic Water Gardens.

What was the first year Earth Day was celebrated?  Earth Day is celebrated on April 22nd every year although in my opinion we should care about the condition of our world not just on that day but everyday.  Some of things I am going to do to this weekend is to walk around my neighborhood and pick up trash, plant a tree in my yard, change out some of my old light bulbs to more energy efficient ones.  We've also arranged for Habitat for Humanity to pick up some old doors, knobs, lights, windows, and other materials that we have on hand  so it can be re-purposed and sold to help that organization build new homes.  Other things I will continue to do is to recycle,  use recyclable grocery bags, recycle hazardous batteries and paint, recycle plastic bags, compost, use both sides of my printer paper to help save a tree, combine as many errands into one trip as possible to save fuel and reduce air pollution, line dry my clothes.  There are so many things you can do with the things that you no longer need or want.  For example you can donate them to a number of organizations,  or join your local Freecycle.org where community members post items that they want to dispose of or list things that they need.  If you haven't done so check it out and remember make Earth Day Everyday.

Lastly, I will take my grandchildren on a nature walk and have fun observing some of the wonderful things in nature.  I don't usually recommend children watching TV but after a fun day of hiking in the woods we could end our day with a movie night watching The Lorax.  If you haven't done so already watch this film with your child or grandchild about what the world would be like without real trees or plants.

Never doubt a small group of committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has.   Margaret Mead

First Earth Day: April 22, 1970

Spring is upon us! This indicates many things including pond maintenance, plant care, etc. However many people forget about their fish!! Many people think that they should just feed their fish when the ice defrosts and when they can actually see their fish. This ideology is INCORRECT! You should only begin feeding your fish when the water temperature has been consistently over 55 degrees for more than 1 week.  You should only feed your fish what they can consume in 5 minutes and only once a day, for at least the first couple of weeks until they become acclimated to eating again. It is a good idea to start off with a medicated koi food such as Medi-Koi which is one of the products carried in our store. Medicated koi food is a good idea because it promotes proper immune health for the koi.

So, remember: ONLY feed your fish when the water temperature has been above 55 degrees, only once a day, and only as much food that they can consume within 5 minutes!

Last year was a very stressful year when it came to keeping fish in our pond.  We had two predators visit that we've never seen before at our pond.  One of them was a mink that showed up the day after Thanksgiving.  Thankfully, the pond wasn't frozen over yet and I noticed that several of our large koi were missing.  It's hard not to notice when missing several two and a half foot colorful fish.  We did find one of them half eaten underneath our artificial rock that houses our pump so we knew it was something that was carrying them out of the pond.  The only reason we thought it might be a mink is because we had spotted it the day before in our swimming pool.  We knew if we didn't get the mink away from our pond he would continue coming back until he had wiped out all of our fish.  Even if the pond had frozen over the mink would've found his way in through the hole in the ice so it's actually fortunate that it hadn't frozen over otherwise I would not have known until spring that the mink had been attacking our fish. Don't be fooled into thinking if your pond freezes over it will stop them from hunting your fish.   Another thing we learned is that minks will travel miles in search of food so their hunting territory is large.  We learned this from a trapper after a friend of ours suggested calling him to get rid of the mink.  He set the trap and within two weeks he got him and as you can imagine he turned out to be a very well fed mink.   That was our late fall visiting predator.

Even though it doesn't feel like spring it hasn't stopped the other of our predators from coming back to town.  Herons have been spotted in the area again and will be scoping out their territory looking for sources of food.  Unfortunately, I had my first encounter with a heron attacking my fish last year.  That's pretty good since I've had my pond for about 20 years.  However, it didn't make me feel any better as I looked out my window and spotted something orange on the patio next to my pond.  I was completely upset and shocked to see one of my favorite Koi lying there. The heron must have been scared away and dropped the koi because except for one puncture wound it was intact.  Until I could come up with a better solution, I immediately covered my pond with netting making sure that it was not lying directly on the pond so the heron could not get his long beak through the net.  The next morning after coming back from my morning walk, I spotted the Heron sitting on my roof eyeing the pond. As soon as it saw me it immediately flew away and that happened several more times.  He would show up early in the morning to go fishing.  Fortunately, after a couple of weeks the Heron must have gotten frustrated or found another fishing hole.

What are some of the others things we could have done to prevent the Heron from attacking?  We could have used a Scarecrow that is activated by movement or placed a floating alligator head on the pond.  Beware of pond predators and don't think they'll give up after one fishing expedition.

 

 

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