A guide to caring for your pond during Winter and Spring
Ponds make an excellent (and aesthetically pleasing) addition to a garden. Whether you keep fish in them or prefer a low-maintenance pond, they can transform any outdoor space. But having a pond also comes with the task of caring for and maintaining its health, including in the winter and spring.
To help, we’ve put together a guide to caring for your pond during winter and spring.
Thinking of starting a pond? Check out our guide to building a low-maintenance pond
Importance of Regular Pond Maintenance
Regular maintenance and care are required by those with a pond in their garden. Taking the time to look after your pond helps to keep its beauty, tranquillity, and vibrancy, and your pond’s ecosystem will also benefit.
Whether it’s a fish pond, garden pond, or freshwater pond, they can all benefit from regular pond maintenance. The job requires more than removing dead plant growth or picking fallen leaves out of the water. A more holistic approach is needed to experience the full benefits.
Some of the benefits your pond will gain from regular care and maintenance include:
- - It helps maintain a healthy ecosystem.
- - It helps prevent algae growth and outbreaks (such as blanket weed).
- - It keeps the water well oxygenated.
- - Ensures good water quality.
- - Retains the aesthetic appeal of the pond.
- - Filter systems and pumps continue to work efficiently.
Caring for Your Pond in Winter and Spring
Now that you know the benefits of maintaining and caring for your pond let’s look at how you can care for your pond in winter. During the cold winter months, your primary concern is keeping the pond liveable and ensuring hibernating fish survive.
The biggest problem ponds face in the winter is freezing temperatures. When the mercury hits below zero, pond water will freeze. For fish hibernating, this can cause some problems. That’s because the ice acts as a barrier preventing oxygen from being absorbed and nitrogen escaping.
While fish can continue to survive in cold water, preventing gas exchange can see poisonous gases build up. The water quality deteriorates as a result. These gases are a result of organic waste decomposing. The lack of oxygen can also spell bad news for fish during hibernation.
You need to ensure a vent in the pond for natural gas exchange and a healthy oxygen supply. This vent can be a small opening or gap in the frozen water. Alternatively, removing the ice can be another option.
Many people may be tempted to go outside and break the ice covering your pond. However, this can be extremely dangerous for hibernating fish. The shockwaves from breaking the ice can startle the fish and traumatise them. In extreme cases, the fish can die.
Removing Ice from the Pond
There are several safe ways to create a vent in the pond during a freeze or to remove the ice completely. Some methods work more effectively than others to allow natural gas exchange and ensure fish remain healthy.
The first method is to place a small item that floats in the pond water, like a bottle. Then, once the pond has frozen over, you can remove the object. A small gap will be left in the ice to allow the natural gas exchange needed for a healthy winter pond ecosystem.
Another method for removing the ice from a frozen pond is to use a pond heater. These devices are placed into the pond’s water to ensure it remains heated. As a result, the water will not freeze over during a frost. A heater can be used for the whole or part of the pond.
There are three different types of pond heaters you can use:
- - Gas-fired boilers use a heating system to heat water away from the pond, which is circulated through a separate chamber and back into the pond (like how radiators work).
- - Inline electric water heater pumps to a heating chamber, which uses electrical heating elements to warm the water, before returning to the pond.
- - Pond de-icers are the most common small devices that float on the water’s surface to heat the water.
Running a pond heater, however, can be expensive. As a result, this only acts as a short-term solution due to the running costs. Pond heaters are also better suited to smaller ponds and can be expensive.
Removing Dead Growth
Another top tip for caring for your pond during Winter is to remove as much dead growth and decaying organic matter as possible. While you may have done this during the Autumn, some plants may have continued to thrive until the freezing weather appeared.
You should try to remove as much dead growth and decaying matter from your pond as possible and as soon as possible. Otherwise, your water can gain nutrients from the decaying plants. While you may not think this is a problem, it can cause a serious pond issue later.
Pond water with a high mineral content is the perfect condition for algae growth, particularly blanket weed. Blanket weed requires three conditions to allow the spores to bloom: sunlight, high mineral content, and a high pH water level.
Chances are the blanket weed spores are already in your pond water. That’s because the wind carries them, making it impossible to prevent them from entering your pond. However, unless the right conditions are provided, the spores shouldn’t bloom.
To prevent this, it’s important to keep the nutrient content of the pond water as low as possible. A big help to achieve this is by picking up fallen leaves as soon as possible, cutting back dead plant growth, and removing any decaying matter.
You can also install a
blanket weed controller to ensure algae blooms don’t occur. These small devices are fitted to the pond's existing piping and release a small but harmful magnetic field that disturbs the balance needed for algae spores to bloom.
Check out the answers to these popular blanket weed controller questions
You should continue to do this throughout Spring, too. Spring is the perfect time to tidy up in the garden, including around the pond. Not only does this make space for any plants, but it prevents overgrowth that can contribute to algae blooms.
Additional Winter and Spring Pond Maintenance Tips
Alongside the above, here are some additional winter pond maintenance tips to keep your pond healthy, vibrant, and aesthetically pleasing:
- - Avoid feeding fish during hibernations in the winter. Begin once they awaken and swim close to the surface.
- - Keep pond pumps and filters running to maintain the water quality.
- - Add evergreen plants as a source of oxygen.
- - Ensure all filters and pumps are working correctly and free from blockages.
- - Remove and clean your filters and pumps in the Spring.
- - Protect fish from predators.
- - Place fish back into the pond if they were moved at the start of Spring.
Did you find these tips helpful? Throughout the Winter and Spring, keeping fish alive and healthy while also ensuring you prevent a high nutrient content in the water is paramount. That way, as the summer rolls around, you can enjoy a healthy pond with thriving fish and no algae blooms.