[Kate and her Ducks]

In our new place we have a large pond with 2 little islands in it. It has been very neglected and getting it back into shape is a pretty big challenge.



As you can see the pond is surrounded by mainly willow which is also growing on the islands. Over the years the previous owners have just thrown everything into the pond from rubbish to all the willow cuttings which are happily rooting.
I've made some inroads into clearing the pond and islands - I know it doesn't look like it but 2 days ago the islands were covered with nettles, thistles and saplings.

Could do with some advice about what to plant to try and invigorate the pond and also what to put on the islands. Preferably things that provide ground cover, don't need too much weeding (especially as my chest waders have sprung  a leak) like shade and the wet although the centre of the islands is actually pretty dry!

[8doubles]

Is the pond going to be duck infested or will there be a chance of it staying "invigorated"?

Aquasure is what you need to fix the chesties !

[sunshineband]

One to avoid imho is yellow flag, as it is super invasive and incredibly heavy when you try to remove it in sections  :blink:

Native plants nearly always grow well on the banks of ponds, but if you are looking for something different, skunk cabbages are brilliant, and need little weeding around with their huge leaves later in the year.

As for in the pond --  is it large enough for brandy bottle? Water hawthorn is excellent and water crowthorn is a really good oxygenator. Native plants tend to be the safest bet, as 'foreign imports' can travel on birds' feet and cause issues in other local waterways.

[mumofstig]

It seems skunk cabbage is becoming a menace, so you might think twice before planting that - it is out-competing native plants
http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/325662-curse-of-the-skunk-cabbage

Water mint is good for tortoiseshell butterflies 

[Kate and her Ducks]

Hoping to keep it largely duck free although was wondering about letting them have a brief trip there to attack the duck weed! its a balance against the poo which is it's own problem in a pond.

Yellow flag might be a problem as there is already some there! I was thinking about concentrating it around the inlet pipe (the pond drains the local fields so lots of agricultural run off and I'd heard yellow flag can be used in reed beds). I guess having it at the most accessible point would help in the removing if that becomes necessary.

Water mint sounds good. The sheep are in my bad books having escaped again. Jumping perfectly good fences is against the (well my) rules!

[fatcat1955]

The white Arum lillie's make good marginal plant's and they help in purifying the water too.

[Kate and her Ducks]

Ooh and they are so pretty too.

Had a bit more of a bash at the weekend and managed to get most of 1 island sorted and half of the other and planted some water lilies so will see if these survive.

Next job is tackling the duck weed.

[fatcat1955]

You will NEVER eradicate duckweed. Best you can do is keep collecting it in a net and compost it.

[Kate and her Ducks]

That and feeding it to the ducks is the plan.

Not expecting to eradicate it, or the nettles, ground elder, goose grass, thistles or couch grass but maybe keep under control!

[8doubles]

That and feeding it to the ducks is the plan.

Not expecting to eradicate it, or the nettles, ground elder, goose grass, thistles or couch grass but maybe keep under control!

That is about right for ponds, the main battle is to stop them filling in with vegetation and becoming a marsh ! One of the things it is hard to keep right is getting the right amount of light on the pond without having trees dropping too many leaves in come autumn.

Hard work but a nice problem to have !
Very jealous .