Once May has come, nothing stands in the way of pond care in the spring. Here we explain how to make your pond fit.
Immediately after the ice saints (usually the last days of frost in spring) you should carry out thorough garden pond maintenance every year. Especially since from the middle of May the water temperatures rise again significantly and at the same time the plants start growing in the pond. And the mostly exotic pond plants removed from the pond for the winter can now be put back into the water without any problems.
Before you start the cleanup
You can start cleaning your garden pond for the first time (e.g. removing leaves with a net) as early as March/April, which means that pond care is already reduced by one task in May.
In principle, fish, crabs and other pond inhabitants can remain in the water during pond maintenance. However, if you want to redesign a few things, you should first put the little animals in a "replacement pond", e.g. in several large water containers. If possible, you should fill these water containers with your own pond water so that the animals in the replacement pond have approximately the same conditions and the short-term movement does not become a total stress factor.
How to make your pond fit
1. Prune and divide plants
First of all, it is important to cut back old plants or divide them if they have grown too much in the last year. At the same time, you should also cut off rotten plant remains and dispose of them in a compost if possible. This care measure also has the advantage that not too many algae form in the pond. A full spring cut also promotes the growth of aquatic plants and also clearly limits their habitat, so that weaker plants also have a good chance of growing in the garden pond
» Share plants in plant baskets:
If you placed the pond plants in plant baskets when creating the garden pond, you must now remove them and divide them with a spade in the root area.
» Share permanently planted pond plants:
Plant care becomes more difficult when the pond plants take rootare in the soil of your natural pond. This type of pond planting is only recommended at low water points. If possible, you should then drain the water from the pond again so that you can then also easily cut off the plants in the ground with a spade.
Alternatively, you can climb into the pond with a special waterspout, which can be bought in any fishing shop, and share the plants directly on site.
2. Insert new pond plants
Ideally, you should also add new pond plants in May. For example water lilies, water lilies, seaweed and the like. You should always weigh down the freshly added plants with enough gravel so that they no longer float and grow better in the pond.
For planting, you can either plant the previously divided pond plants in pond baskets and place them in the water, or you can buy new pond plants and place them in the garden pond.
» Tip:
Pond plants can often be exchanged with other pond owners in the spring. In some cases, special barter exchanges are even organized for this purpose.
3. Remove algae from the garden pond
Toxic substances can spread in garden ponds, which quickly turn them into a stinking broth. First and foremost, you have to fight against algae, which multiply rapidly in spring due to the rise in temperature.
To contain the algae problem, you can use pond snails all year round, which fight algae naturally. There are also biological algae killers available in specialist shops. Further measures against the algae problem are the use of a sludge vacuum cleaner, with which you can thoroughly clean the pond walls.
4. Reinstate water featuresAfter you have taken good care of the plants and animals in your garden pond, you can now use the water features removed over the winter months again. These include fountains, pond foggers, water lighting and more.
However, it is important that you try out all this pond technology again before you put it in and maybe even wait. Not that this no longer works and you only notice it when you have already used the technology in the pond.