The pond, relieved

Relieved of its heavy coat of netted leaves that is! I recently talked about how easy it was to protect the pond this year due to its being smaller.

Removing the netting was easier too, especially since there were no seams for big bunches of leaves to fall through!

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It was still pretty heavy, as some of the netting sagged and the leaves got soggy.

Still, not an overly difficult job. The water did brown up a bit from the tannins leaching from the leaves, but that's happened before and doesn't seem to hurt the fish. It clears up in a few weeks from what I remember.

Removing as much of the underwater plants as possible is important, as they will eventually die and you want as little organic matter in the water as you can get. (That was very awkwardly worded, don't you think?)

I got as much as I could out, but I should probably make another pass -- it really was a jungle under that water! (I use anacharis and hornwort as my oxygenators, and they'll both come back next season from the smallest pieces -- you can't get every little scrap!)

Most of the leaves (and the greenery) got dumped onto the compost pile, but some...

...get stuck in the netting. I don't bother trying to get them out, as the whole thing gets balled up and goes into the trash. There's almost no way to reuse this flimsy stuff, but the price is right and it does the job! (There's 1/2 as much of it or less this year, so I don't feel as bad about the waste.)

Now I just wait for the water to clear up a little so I can watch the fish in the cold, clear water!


(I felt like I was really on top of the leaves this year, not only with the pond but with raking. Then I realized that it's nearly December and it's just been the mild, dry weather that's given me lots more time to get this stuff done.)


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