How to take Care of Your Home Pond

First of all , each of us must be aware of the following 

1 Make a pond by digging a hole suitable to you and line in with plastic or use the pond in your neighborhood.

2 Buy an already made pond, if you are not interested in building a pond. You can get this from your local plant nursery.

3 Take care of your pond by putting duck weed and a few tadpoles or fish in, to create a friendly environment for the pond guests. Putting in water plants and rocks it is a great idea. A good pond can encourage dragonflies that lay their eggs in the pond.

4 Once a balance of plants and animal life is established, the water should remain clear without needing further attention. However, if you notice any changes in the numbers of fish and plants, the water balance may be slightly off and a surge of algal growth may result.

5 Aquatic plants don’t require much attention, but periodic division helps keep them healthy. Every couple of years, in late spring or early autumn, divide plants that are overgrown or crowding neighbouring plants. Thick roots may need to be divided with a spade or a knife and divided clumps can be replanted singly.

6 Pests are less of a problem in ponds with fish, as the fish eat the insect larvae. In late summer aphids often attack water lilies and other aquatic plants, causing discolouring and decay. Use a hose pipe to wash away the aphids, or submerge the leaves of plants for 24 hours.

7 Here are some water plants to try in your pond:

Nymphaea ‘Gonnere’ – waterlily with scented white flowers

Nymphaea ‘Pygmaea Helvola’ – dwarf waterlily good for smaller ponds with bright yellow cupped flowers

Butomus umbellatus – a flowering rush with distinctive umbels of pink flowers on metre-long stems

Iris laevigata – Japanese water iris – Lovely white iris that likes to grow in shallow water

Pontederia cordata – free spreading marginal plant with spikes of blue flowers at the end of summer

Tips

• If you live in a country where cane toads are a problem they can be prevented from entering by surrounding to pond with a vertical 70cm wall. Cane toads cannot jump or climb this high but most tree frogs will be able too, just in case leave 20mm gaps between the walls to let small ground-dwelling frogs through (note this will not let ADULT cane toads through). Inspect your pond for cane toads every 3 to 4 days, if you find any place them into a plastic bag and humanely kill them (if a pest in your country), also remember to remove and destroy and cane toad spawn. To tell apart frog spawn from cane toad spawn, frog spawn is usually in small clusters and have a small-medium black dot inside. Whereas cane toad spawn is in long strings and have a big black dot inside.

• If your pond is large enough get some Peking or mallard ducks for the pond Muscovy ducks carry a lot of nasty diseases that transfer to human through the ducks faeces so if you do have them make sure to clean the faeces from around the pond

• It is nice to have some exotic plants,wildlife in or around the pond but some might do harm to the wildlife or plants that already live there make sure to do research if that certain animal plant will affect the ponds residents that live there already you may also need a licence for some wildlife

Warnings

• Never clean your pond. To create a sustainable eco-system you need algae, but only on the walls of the pond, if it gets into the thick of the water, clean it out.
• Do not just put ordinary tap water in as it contains chlorine and other chemicals which will kill most wildlife that enters your pond. *Let tap water stand for a week before adding it in or, alternatively buy a aquarium chlorine product which removes and harmful chemicals. Also, if you do accidentally add normal tap water in, just adding the chlorine remover should save your beloved pond without any harm.
• If removing cane toads take caution with the poisonous glands located near the neck that will ooze out a white gel if disturbed. Remember not to ingest this gel and wash your hands afterwards, even if you wear gloves. This poison is strong enough to kill most small animals (household pets) and rarely, small children. However this poison is strong enough to make an average human sick and medical attention should be sleeked if the poison is ingested or absorbed.

Things You’ll Need For Caring of your pond 

• a pond
• water plants
• duck weed
• rocks
• A materiel to make a wall around the pond (rocks/bricks)
• Gloves