Allotment tasks - February Pond

I got a phone call last night saying that Maurice is ready to install his new pond! Back at the late end of last summer, we volunteered to help him dig out the space for the line that he’s been given, but that was before my other half was told he shouldn’t be doing any digging, as he’s developed golfer’s wrist or hockey player’s elbow or bowler’s bicep or some such thing that means he’s not supposed to lift or dig. So guess who’s going to be up to her oxters in a big hole?

Anyway, it is that time of year. We’ve been working on our home pond this month, and I notice that several of our allotment friends have been doing the annual maintenance on theirs.

A big spring clean for a pond involves taking out some pond water and putting it in a big container, moving all the fish into that container, putting the plants in another container, and pumping out the pond. Then you need to scrub out the bottom and sides of the pond with fresh water and a soft brush (a hard one might damage a flexible liner), pump out that water, return the plants, fill the pond with fresh water (rainwater for preference, if it has to be tap water, you need to let it sit for two or three days so it can run through the filter and dechlorinate.

Put the fish in plastic bags with their old water and some air, and float the bags on top of the newly cleaned pond until the water in the bag and the water in the pond are the same temperature. If the clean water temperature differs more than a few degrees from the old pond water, the shock could kill all the fish.

Labels: allotment-pond, allotment-tasks-february