One of the reasons I started this blog a few years back was to educate myself, as well as share my gleaned knowledge with others. Like so many gardening enthusiasts, I came into this game with a bevy of preconceived notions. Among my most notoriously bad ones: colored mulch enhances new garden plantings (it doesn't--it simply adds an ugly, fake-looking layer around otherwise lovely plants); grass must look like a perfect green carpet (only if you like the idea of your kids and pets running barefoot in ankle-deep chemicals); and a pond looks awful when there's algae in it. I'm not gonna lie, I still struggle with this last one.
Just like it took me a while to appreciate the clover in my lawn (seeing all the bees buzzing in the delicate white flowers was what finally convinced me), I have to "train" myself to look into my pond proudly producing green algae blooms and not see red. Here's why it's good for your pond to go green:
1. Algae produces oxygen in the water, which keeps the pond from becoming smelly with harmful bacteria. In fact, like other plants, it absorbs the harmful C02 we expel and releases oxygen.
2. The filamentous version (green string algae) feeds fish and tadpoles, and provides a home for beneficial bacteria.
3. It tastes great. Just ask my dog, who tries to eat it every chance she gets!
Of course too much of a good thing can be problematic. Excessive algae on the pond's surface can block sunlight, counteracting all the good I've just mentioned. A balanced pond--like most things in life--requires moderation. Carefully removing a portion of pond algae is the best solution for good pond health and appearance.
There's a right way to do this and a wrong way. The wrong way is the easiest: dumping chemicals into the water. This, of course, can drastically improve the clarity of the pond, but at the cost of wildlife who inhabit and drink from it. It's also detrimental to the expensive plantings that have been cultivated in and around the water's edge. A far better, less expensive approach is to "old school" it: Purchase a $10 skimmer from a pool store, and manually scoop out the algae. Since it's floating, it's super easy to snatch up, and dump into a bucket. Just be careful to check the skimmer's netting to ensure you haven't snagged a tadpole or tiny fish.
Take ten or fifteen minutes each day to maintain the pond, and you'll have a beautiful landscape feature that you'll be able to enjoy for years to come. I hit up mine each morning with a cup of coffee in one hand, and the skimmer in the other. The frogs have gotten so used to the routine that they don't even bother to hide in the rocks as I'm cleaning their pad (corny, I know, but I couldn't resist the pun). The little critters pay me for my services in dead bugs--the ones they eat before the insects gets a chance to feast on me. If that isn't friendship, I don't know what is. I mean, really, would you swallow flies and mosquitos for your bestie?
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