Now the Autumn is upon us it is very important to clear all leaves from your pond both floating and sinking and to tidy up the dying vegetation around the ponds margins as well.
Rotting leaves soon pollute the water leading to a rapid increase in disolved salts.
One of the jobs I did this week was to cut back the water lillies by a good half, they've finished flowering and are starting to change colour and die back so I removed all damaged and discoloured leaves and all spent flowers and added them to my compost.
I used the term cut but in actual fact its better to firmly pull the leaf stalks off, get a good firm grip of stem and pull, the aim is to detach stem from root, dont yank!
As soon as the heavy frosts arrive usually mid to late November the remaining leaves will be done in so I remove all remaining leaves down to roots and tidy up ready for spring.
I also thinned out watercress in veg filter and that will have same treatment after heavy frosts although its somewhat tougher than waterlillies and stands a greater degree of frost!.
This year I finally got to build an insulated shed around my Nexus filter housing constructed mainly from re-cycled 25 mm polycarbonate sheet it is complete with heater.
After the dreadful winter of 2009/10 when my filter froze solid for 6 weeks, I vowed "never again"!
To all you keen gardeners out there, another first for me this year was to grow a peach tree in a tub, very sucessfully I might add
Winding Down To Winter
Re: Winding Down To Winter
Always relevant information this time of year for anyone just starting out on koi-keeping duties. I should add that its not a bad idea also to check your water quality more often over October/November period as it can fluctuate quite a bit this time of year.
Phil
Phil