Definitely. Fire away.

Yes please do as lots of us have ponds

Thank you! This year we have started our "Pond Project". We had a hole dug out about 16'x12' and roughly 2'6" in the middle, with two shelves for marginals. We've put a upv filter and pump in and have a small waterfall.

We have put about thirty mixed marginal plants in, plus a water lily in the bottom. We have also put quite a few oxygenating plants in. Last week we put in 10 goldfish.

My question is: why are we plagued with blanket weed? Where did it come from and how can we get rid of it? Many thanks.

(The pond is NOT finished yet........! It's work in progress.)

You can buy a safe chemical from acquatic centres or you could use barley - it comes in netted bundles and does work very well.

Thank you! Would the aquatic centre sell barley? Is is it used in the original form as picked from the field, or just the ears?

Next question, please!

We have a narrowboat and have noticed as we travel along the canals that British Waterways is using some sort of stuff to plant in on the sides of the canal. It is sausage shaped, covered in netting and obviously has some compost inside for the plants to grow in.

Is there something similar we could buy to put round the edges of our pond? It would be useful to cover the butyl liner.

Not sure of the sausage shaped plant you refer to, could they be Bull Rushes? But you could cover the liner with turves for a quick fix until you find the right plants for the site, make sure the turves touch the pond water for irrigation until they "take" and prick the excess liner to enable the grass roots to grow through, you could then maybe sow meadow flower seeds would look really natural and enhance your fab pond!

Thanks for the reply. I'm talking about the thing which is used to put the plants into. It's tubular, looks bait like straw, though I'm sure it isn't. Next time we go out on the canal, I'll take a picture.

I'd contact British Waterways and ask them what the product is and where you can get it from. I'm assuming you mean its a sausage shaped planting medium contained in mesh... Or you could ask your local aquatic centre what it might be. The only thing available years ago was aquatic pots, but maybe things have moved on.

Ahhh sorry misunderstood, Bamboos suggestion sounds good to me though

I can't remember who, but a member was recently talking about 'planting socks' for ponds. I hope they see this post or try googling 'planting socks for ponds' to compare with what you have seen

Perfect! I googled "Plant Socks for Ponds" and up came the answer. Many thanks.

However, they're not cheap, even on ebay, and it occurs to me that I could make some out of weed proof membrane. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Yes Canalhopper, I was at an aquatic centre in Crawley a few days ago and they sold barley in easy manageable bundles wrapped in netting.

I was the one who first mentioned soft planting bags they conform to the shape of the pond so if your shelf is uneven they will settle in to it and still be level. These socks have to be durable as fish nibble at them and the plant roots push through so although making your own sounds ok, the seams may go quite quickly and turn out to be a false economy?

Thanks Drc...I knew I had read it somewhere but couldn't remember who it was :)

Your welcome S