Caring for a Garden Pond

Do you enjoy the sound of running water and croaking frogs? Then you need a garden pond! Garden ponds are a wonderful addition to your landscaping, but there is some care involved. Though it is simple, there are a few things you must know about caring for a garden pond.

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Anniversary Pond!

Growing up my grandparents and mom both had garden ponds. When Papa built his pond, I went swimming in it. Then I trained his goldfish to come to the top, so that I could pet them. I was knee high on a grasshopper when this all occurred. I remember my mom putting in her garden pond. We found baby turtles under a rock. I enjoyed feeding the fish, chasing the frogs, and hunting for tadpoles each spring.

For our first anniversary, my Papa got us a garden pond. Then Dalton had the joy of digging the hole to place the pond in. It was easy digging, but a good sized hole. Bless his heart, he did the entire thing in a single day. Then it was my turn to fill it with water, plants, and fish.

If you don’t yet have a pond, check out my post about how to create a garden pond. It is a feasible weekend project.

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Caring for the Filter & Pump

The pump and filter in a garden pond need regular care to keep the pond clean and oxygendated. When you notice that the filter isn’t putting out as much water as usual or the shape of the spray is odd, it is time to clean the pump and filter.

First, you need to unplug your pump and filter. Then, you can pull them out of the pond. Next, take apart the box so that you can get to the filters. Use the garden hose to spray them out. Do not do this near your pond. You don’t want the dirt and untreated water to get back into the pond. I LOVE to use my fireman nozzle for this. My pond has a ball filter, so I also spray out the pond balls. I recommend leaving them in the box to spray them. If you don’t it is easy to lose one or spray it across the yard.

Once the filters are clean, you should clean the pump and fountain. Take off the fountain top from the pump tube. Spray the hose up the tube of the pump. This should clear any debris. Reassemble the pump and filter. Wring everything out to leave as much untreated water behind as possible. Put the box back in the pond and plug it back in. You may have to hold it down for a second until it fills with water.

Caring for the Pond Plants

It is easiest to put in plants before you actually fill it up with water, but you can always add them later. Just be prepared to get wet. You can buy pots specifically made to go in the pond or just use a plastic pot drilled full of holes. Put some pea gravel in the bottom of the pot before adding your plant. Use a little bit of dirt around the plant. Then fill the rest of the pot with pea gravel. Set your plants in the pond. I have water lilies and a pickerel. The lilies like to sit below the surface of the water. I put them right on the bottom of the pond. The pickerel likes to be in the water, but not submerged completely. My pond has a little shelf, so I put it there. When the pond is filled, the water barely covers the top of the pot.

Caring for the Water in a Garden Pond

If you are going to put fish in the pond, you need to treat the water. You do not have to treat the water if you are on well water, but it won’t hurt anything if you do. I use this kind and haven’t had any problems. Follow the directions on the bottle to make the water safe for fish. You can either put the hose in the pond or you can fill five gallon buckets with water and pour them in. If you are not sure how much water your pond holds or how much you need to add, I suggest doing the bucket method. This will let you know how much water treatment to use as well. You do not want to fill the pond to the brim, the rain will take care of that for you.

Caring for Fish in a Garden Pond

Fish are a wonderful addition to your garden pond. They help eat the algae and keep the pond clean. I recommend going to a bait shop to buy goldfish. They are fairly inexpensive to buy this way. This also makes you feel better when a neighborhood cat or racoon comes and eats them all in the middle of the night.

When you get the fish, you can drop them right into the pond. Unlike a fish tank, you do not need to float them in a bag to acclimate first. Just make sure that the water in the pond has already been treated.

Little fish will have an easier time eating fish flakes. Bigger fish will be able to eat fish pellets. My fish have never survived the outrageous cat population for more than a season, so I just feed them flakes. My mom’s fish have been around for years, so they eat pellets. When her fish have babies, my mom will do a bit of both types of food. I start feeding them in the spring when they start hitting the top. I stop feeding them in the winter when they no longer come up to eat.

Troubleshooting Caring for a Garden Pond

The pond is full of algae.

A lot of algae is probably a result of the pond getting a lot of sunlight. Fish are a great natural solution to this problem. They will eat the algae. If you already have fish, then it is possible that you are feeding them too much. Too much food left over will cause algae growth. Another way to treat algae is to add peroxide to the pond. You can dump in an entire bottle of peroxide. If you don’t see any results, add another bottle the next day.

The fish keep getting eaten.

Give them some hiding spots. Plants to cover the top of the pond are super helpful. Fish need places to hide from predators. I like to use clay pots for this purpose. You can lay them on their side or upside down. Break a hole in them like a door, if you turn them upside down.

The fish keep dying.

If you notice that the fish are dying and have white stuff on them it means your pond has ich (pronounced ick). You can treat the pond for ich, to try and save the rest of your fish. When my fish got ich last year, I used an ich treatment. It was not successful because I was not consistent and did not start treatment early enough. Once all of the fish died, I drained my pond to clean it. I cleaned the pond, rinsed the plants, cleaned the filter, and washed the pump out. I refilled my pond with treated water. Then I put in ich medication, just in case anything was left over. I treated it for ich again about a week later, then bought more fish.