Summer pond management

Cut back plants and keep the water topped up

- Ruth Hayes

IT’S high summer and garden ponds are busy places, both in and out of the water. Our little wildlife pond is rippling with life – beetles and water boatmen fighting for territories, damselflies mating and laying eggs, birds swooping down to drink. We may not have frogs yet, but I can happily lose hours watching everything else going about its business!

In ponds up and down the country, marginal plants and weeds, along with aquatic plants of all varieties, are growing fast. At the same time, water is evaporating and the warm weather may be causing the rapid growth of green algae and blanketweed.