We had a nice warm-up over the weekend, temps in the 50's and melted off most of the snow on the ground. The pond is completely ice-free now, and I had unplugged the heater last week when it started getting warmer. Some of my irises have been trying to put up new leaves since last month, and now that they're not encased in ice maybe they'll start growing again. The fish even came out to eat yesterday!
At this point I'm just biding my time to get started with rearranging the plants. I'll be taking out some big bundles and will throw them up on freecycle. I think this year I'm going to try and arrange all the large plants along the back edge of the pond, and just keep the really small plants up front. The umbrellas are growing out of control, so I started moving some of them around by the waterfall where the edge of the pond drops off sharply -- they only grow in a few inches of water, so I'll just limit their available space. I also have a pile of irises that I will thin out. I have one type that has never flowered in the last 3 years. They make a nice border, but I'd rather see more flowers, so I'll start switching them out with other types of irises.
Also waiting to see if there is any sign of life from the lily bulbs. Last Summer I put the bulbs into the soil, right up against the pond liner so they would get some radiant heat from the water. Of course then we had an abnormally cold Winter, so its anybody's guess if they survived or not.
And OMG the algae bloom! As the ice melted back, the string algae went crazy. In just a few days its grown like mad, hanging off the waterfall and flowing down the stream. I netted out a bunch yesterday, but that won't slow it down. I tried the bags of kitty litter, had a huge sock of it sitting in the top of each filter since last Summer, but it hasn't made a dent in the growth.
I can't believe how much dead plant matter I'm still pulling out of the pond. I try to get it cleaned up by the end of Fall, and I mow and bag the leaves in the yard, but somehow the stuff still keep blowing in, plus I have leaves from the irises and everything else. I spent a lot of time pulling stuff out yesterday, but I have one corner where there's too much in the way to get the net through. Once the water warms up, I'll probably have to go swimming and clean it out by hand.
glad it is not me
