Prepare Your Garden Pond for Winter
Cold winter weather can have a big and negative impact on your garden pond. Here are some tips for getting it through the winter successfully.

Ideally, you should keep on top of pond maintenance all year round and many of the following tasks should be undertaken as a matter of course throughout the year. If you don't keep a close eye on your garden pond, it can rapidly become unhealthy and a problem—definitely a case of a stitch in time...

• Look at your oxygenating plants. If they are beginning to get straggly and put their heads above water, thin them out and cut off any growth above water. The reason is that frost will kill that growth anyway and cause pollution in the pond.
• Remove dead and dying foliage from all pond plants and any overhanging the pond for the same reason.
• Tender marginals like arum lily should either be brought indoors to protect from frost or they may survive if moved into deeper water. If you choose the second option, don't forget where they are and to bring them out once the danger of frost has passed.
• Tender floating plants like water hyacinths should also be brought indoors and protected from frost. If this isn't possible, then you will have to treat them as an annual. Don't leave them in the pond to be killed by frost because, again, they will rot and pollute the water.
• Leaves from trees and shrubs that have fallen into the pond must be removed regularly, again to prevent pollution. If you have a real problem with leaves falling from nearby trees, consider putting a net across the pond to catch them. You will need to empty it regularly so that light isn't cut out and also in case the net becomes so heavy that it sinks into the pond.
• Early autumn is a good time to get pond equipment like pumps and filters serviced.
• Even if you don't get them professionally serviced, make sure that your pump is in good working order and isn't clogged by mud and debris. Also check your filter unit isn't overburdened with debris. Clean them if necessary.
• If you have fish in the pond, start reducing their feed in early autumn. Stop feeding them altogether when they don't eat all the food within 5 to 10 minutes.
• As autumn gives way to winter, ice may form on the pond. Always keep a small section clear of ice to allow toxic gases to escape. A soft balll floating on the surface can sometimes keep a hole open but make sure it doesn't just get iced in. If the ball trick works, remove it during the day.
• If ice forms right across the pond, do not open a hole by violently banging the ice. The shockwaves sent through the water can kill your fish. Instead use hot water poured on to the ice. If you think ahead, you can float empty plastic bottles, with their caps on, then if the pond freezes over, just pour hot water into them to melt the ice. It might be a good idea to put string round them and tie it to a nearby shrub or a stick in the ground to stop them floating out of reach to the centre of the pond.
• If the pond does get iced over (with the hole open, of course) and then snow falls on top of the ice, this will cut out light and should be swept off—please don't stand on the ice to do it because you will get a nasty shock if you fall through into very cold water.

When listed like this, it all sounds like a lot of work but, in reality, it isn't. Do a little bit regularly, and it really won't be too onerous. You will also have a healthy pond to delight you in spring.

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