WOT a WET Weekend!

Finished and now visible pond

One small piece of water lily

Rescued fish

Well, we had put it off and postponed and prevaricated over mammoth pond work for much too long - over a year in fact. That was until, Saturday and then we just...went for it! Chris donned on the waders and manhandled the biggest heaviest water lily in the deepest part of the pond. It was so big and heavy it had to be cut into lots of manageable pieces even for him! A single 8 year old plant had filled the entire pond sump. It was a GIANT! We hadn't seen the fish since the spring and couldn't feed them as their food sat on the lily pads out of reach of hungry mouths.  All of the white water lilies were removed and as before, 3 small pieces were tied to bricks and lobbed back in. None of those nasty plastic baskets for us! 

Clearing up was also pretty monstrous as Chris had pruned the surrounding trees and shrubs. High winds had taken their toll on the Dogwoods and many had broken off and so, at the expense of winter colour, they were reduced in height.  Chris pushed  barrows heaped high with water lilies off to the compost heap. I hosed off the mud and silt deposited on the surrounding grass. The following day, I edged, mowed, netted fallen leaves in the pond and weeded. Result! We can now see the pond again and the fish!! I promise that the pond couldn't be seen from the spot where the top photo was taken as it was totally obscured by vegetation.

A weeded beach!

Did I say wet weekend? Well the waders sprang a leak! New ones are on order. The only mistake was failing to take a photo of the aquatic jungle that we faced at the outset. Now we have exposed water, I'm expecting blanket weed to proliferate. Why is there always a downside?