Garden Pond Care in Autumn

related article: Winterizing a Garden Pond | Winter Care of Plants

Vital Pond Care for your Water Garden in Autumn

Normally the ground of your water gardens is always covered with a layer of mud after pond season in summer. Dust that flows into the pond, pollen count, rotten foliage, and excrements of your fish created that mud layer, that has to be cleaned out during Garden Pond Care in Autumn. Chose a warm day in autumn and start your pond care by cleaning leaves and mud out of your little aquatic garden with a pond net or, if you have a big water garden, with a electric vacuum pond cleaner.
 

To many nutrients in your pond water were responsible in summer for excessive algae grow. These elements would create deadly gases and poison the water in a frozen and sealed garden pond in winter.

Therefore you have to remove all dead leaves, flowers, and other decomposing vegetation during a general pond cleaning before all will sink to the bottom and start rotting.

If you have winter-hardy water lilies in your water garden, you should be very careful and have a close look, if these floating pond plants have already grown buds beneath the water surface.
Do not remove these parts during pond care, because they will sprout in spring and will grow new leaves and blossoms.

 
Now, tropical, non winter-hardy aquatic plants should be moved with their plant baskets to a warmer places, like a conservatory at the house or a heatable greenhouse. Winter-hardy pond plants can remain in the water, but they should be moved to deeper pond zones, at least 1 meter (3.5 feet), during your garden pond care in autumn to protect this aquatic plants from freezing.
 

Pond Net and Garden Pond Cover against Autumn Leaf Fall

After you have finished to clean the bottom and the water surface you should cover the whole garden pond with pond netting. Pond nets protects your water garden against autumn leaf fall that would create again rotten vegetation at the ground. Garden center offer various products for Garden Pond Netting with different mesh sizes. We advice each owner of a garden pond located near forests or big deciduous trees to cover the pond right before autumn leaf fall to avoid double work of cleaning and pond maintenance.

Covering a water garden may look less amazing in your garden, but pond covers save you lots of time and work of fishing out leaves with a pond net. Skimmer and pond filter systems normally cannot handle the huge amount of leaves and little dry branches that use to fall in the water garden in autumn. As soon as this dead vegetation sinks to the ground the slow process of decomposing starts. The biological balance can change much faster in a garden pond in winter as it does during the year when many water garden plant provide stabile water quality. Pond covers with small mesh sizes avoid even little leaves from falling in the water. A careful installation of water garden covers is a vital step for a garden pond during pond care and after pond cleaning in autumn.

After all environment preparations it is the right moment to remove all sensitive technical pond equipment from the water garden. Clean and service all technical pond products and check its functionality. Store all pond supply that is running correct at a frost-free location. We advice to take pond pumps our of the garden pond and store them in a bucket filled with water to prevents the seals getting porous and the water pump from drying out. Remove pond filter and underwater lamps and store all after cleaning and servicing at a frost-free place, too.
 

Prepare your Garden Pond in Autumn for Winter