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Four tips for autumn pond maintenance

Removing a handful of fallen leaves and blanketweed from a pond

Four tips for autumn pond maintenance

BBC Gardeners' World Magazine

Published: Sunday, 29 September 2019 at 2:31 pm

Find out how to care for your pond in autumn to keep it healthy and looking good.

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Creating a pond is one of the best things you can do for garden wildlife and it makes an attractive garden feature.

Like everything, it needs careful management. This isn't only to maintain the good looks of your pond but also to ensure it continues working as a habitat – if left alone it would gradually fill up with sludge and disappear.

Autumn is the best time to care for your pond as juvenile amphibians will have left, while adult insects will be hibernating.

Don't forget to cater for pollinators with your pond, too. Discover five of the best pond plants for pollinators.

Here are four essential steps to keeping your pond healthy in autumn.

Remove old leaves

Remove rotting leaves, from pond plants and surrounding plants, with a net as they give off noxious chemicals when they decay.

Removing leaves from a pond — Removing rotting fallen leaves from a pond with a fine net

Remove excess vegetation

Rake out excess vegetation. Wildlife needs aquatic plants for shelter, but too many will choke the pond.

Removing excess vegetation from a pond — Pulling out a handful of excess pond weed

Tidy up plants

Cut off and remove fading leaves and flowers that will fall into the pond and decompose, polluting the water.

Cutting back foliage — Cutting back dead pond plant foliage

Remove blanketweed

Remove blanketweed and duckweed. Wildlife may shelter here, so leave it at the side of the pond for a few days while creatures escape.

Removing blanketweed from a pond with the tip of a bamboo cane

Check surrounding plants
It's a good idea at this time of year to take stock of how much surrounding and overhanging plants have grown. If they're starting to shade out your pond too much, consider thinning them out or cutting them back to allow your pond plants to get plenty of sunlight.