Wow, BIG question. I am sure lots of people will come in on this but my contribution is to recommend a good pump and filter system. You don't give us the volume or any details about what is in the pond but aeration is the key to keeping it healthy and sweet. If you want to keep it stagnant get good plants and watch out for naughty snails. The nice ones are a good thing though.

This is a BIG question. What is the actual size of the pond, approximately? Are there fish in the pond? If not, that makes it a little easier to keep clear. As Sarraceniac said, you need a good pump and filter. Plants will help. I would also recommend adding beneficial bacteria to the water. Really need more information to offer specific suggestions.

well id give it a good clean out right about now as its the best time . to keep fish you need more oxygen and cleaner water so as said a filter and pump . id recomend an amphibious pump which is the make with the cage round it . again as said it depends on the size of your pond . you could do without the filter and just have some moving water or you could make another smaller pond and put the pump in the lower one pumping up to the higher which you can fill with water plants as theres know better filter than a natural one and keep fish in the bottom . you could just clean it out and put a nice lilly in it if you just want a natural pond with not many fish if any . a photo would be great .

Hello everyone, Thank you so much for your quick response, as you know I am new here and new to gardening. I have grown a few herbs in pots but very little else as i have not had a garden before.
In repsonse to your questions, the pond is very small maybe a metre and a half circle, with a row of bricks around it. There is no pump or fish , when we viwed the house it looked very pretty a few months back, now it is full of rubbish floating on the surface.I am not sure just at moment about pumps, I have no experinec just yet. But Noseypotter seemed to say I can just clean it out add a lily and leave it natural. Is that correct, do I just scoop out the rubbish , bucket out the water and then add ordinary new tap water, there is a big tank with rain water in it I could use that. The pond is only about 2 feet deep. Many thanks for your advice much appreciated. I think you will be getting many more questions xx

If you are going for a stagnant pond then either tap or rain water will do. If you do use tap water then let it stand for a few days before introducing plants or wildlife to let the chlorine leach out. As Beckerl says, adding some bacteria, obtainable at a good garden centre, is a good thing (but not essential) and do a Google search on 'oxygenating plants'. If you are on eBay then you could also search there.

Do enjoy your new garden and don't worry if you get something wrong. Even experienced gardeners are not right 100% of the time although some think they are. Lol. There is an old saying 'Ask 10 gardeners the same question and you will get 10 different answers. 9 of them will have an element of truth.' That's why GOY works so well with everyone contributing.

I have a stagnant pond which, at present, is covered in ugly green and the water is murky but it is FULL of tadpoles so I won't clean it out at this time of year. I will just put up with it for a while.

pennyfarthing has probably cracked it and you just have to weight till the higher plants actualy grow . it might be worth cleaning it out just to see what you have or havnt got as all pond plants die back in winter that are submurged ie lillies etc . you can use tap water and leave it or use your rain water . get a lilly if it hasnt got one already and just leave it natural .

If you have green algae in your pond Pennyfarthing then getting some of the 'nice' snails would tackle this. I used to get them from my local aquarist type pet-shop when I had a largish pond. You only need a few and they do breed like mad so when you reach optimum an occasional snail purge is required.

sorry to rain on your perade sarracen but all snails potentialy carry fish desease simply because there not susseptible to the said fish desease . i wonder thow as you kind of said weather this pond is stagnant or just mearly not come into life this summer yet . itstill wouldnt hurt to clean it out . water tends to get stagnent when there is know higher life like lillies,fish etc and is only good for mosquitos .