Our pond is slowly being choked by yellow flag iris. As the mat of tubers enlarges other plants grow between like moss and willow herb. Things are made much worse because a slow leak in the pond allows the other plants to grow. Frankly it has taken me a while to get on top of it. So for the last two years, in early spring I clamber into the muddy gloop and about 6cm of water to tear,hack and generally rip away at the huge pile of plant life that is filling in the pond. Slowly we are making progress but the pond is a very busy place. At this time of year it starts to fill up with newts. Loads of them.
To avoid any losses I carefully inspect what i am going to dig out, remove any creatures and then get as much of the weed mat out. Gradually we nibble our way around the mass of roots until there is just a bit more room to swim in. By the end of the job we have collected a big blue tub of displaced refugees. All get put back into a clearer, fuller, more watery pond than before. The kids love the annual roundup. The number of animals that need temporary shifting totally depends on the day of the year and the weather so far.
