Your water garden will do well with minimal attention. You will need to spend some time in the spring setting it up and then sometime in late fall, prepping it for winter. But water gardening otherwise will be some of the lowest-maintenance gardening you’ll do!
Coping With Algae
Every garden should have a little algae—it’s part of a balanced pond system. The trick is to keep it under control. The two main types of algae found in home water gardens are suspended algae and string algae.
Suspending algae is what makes water green. There is usually an “algae bloom” in the spring for a week or two while the pond comes back to life after winter dormancy. If your water garden is well designed for ecological balance, it will take care of itself in a week or two.
String algae is also called filamentous algae. It forms stringy mats or ropes on waterfalls, rocks, plants and other surfaces.
Control algae by making sure you have ecological control with good filtration, plenty of water garden plants to filter out excess nitrogen (which feeds algae) and that you don’t have too many fish, which creates excess nitrogen. Shade provided by floating plants or in other ways also greatly reduces suspended algae. Once algae develops, you can deal with it by physically pulling out string-type algae. As a last resort, you can use one of the many algaecides on the market. If you have fish, find one that can be used with fish. Then read the package directions carefully and follow them exactly.
Spring Care
As temperatures rise in late winter and early spring, it will be time to tend to your water garden and restart it for spring. Lift out any plants in pots that have overwintered in the pond. Trim back dead foliage.
Remove fish as necessary. Simply catch them with a net and put them in a large, clean bucket of water removed from the pond. (Place them in the shade and don’t keep them there for more than a few hours.) Smaller water features may be bailed out with a bucket. Get all the winter leaves and sludge that collects at the bottom. Rinse with a hose. Do not use soap or other chemicals. Larger water features should have an ecological system that keeps water quality in check and doesn’t need a complete draining. However, you can bail out some of the water with a sump or similar pump, if need be. Remove debris with a net and bail out as much sludge as possible. If you are replacing more than one-third of the water and have fish, add a water conditioner product to the water. This removes harmful chemicals, such as chlorine, before fish are reintroduced. With non-hardy water garden plants, wait until all danger of frost has passed to add them to your water garden.
Fall Care
In fall, autumn leaves blowing into water features can be a problem. Net them out every few days, or use a leaf rake to lift them out. In colder winter climates, after the first frost it’s usually time to start prepping your water garden for fall. Lift out floating plants damaged by frost and dispose of in your compost heap or elsewhere. With potted water garden plants, if they are hardy, you can cut them back and put them in your water garden’s deep zone, if it has one, to overwinter. Otherwise, you’ll need to dispose of them and replace them next spring. If you have a deep zone and are overwintering your fish, keep the fountain or waterfall running or use a pond heater.
