Duckweed

Common duckweed (Lemna minor) is a rapidly spreading aquatic plant that deprives ponds of oxygen and leads to the death of fish and beneficial algae in still waters. It is important to get rid of duckweed for the health of your pond and existing aquatic life.  Having said that it is generally found in nutrient rich ponds.

There are NO chemicals that can get rid of duckweed, as any chemical would kill off any other plants.

Duckweed arrives from plants that have duckweed on them, also from birds, or any other creature, that have been into a pond with duckweed before entering yours.

pond skimmer is ideal to have to hand in any pond. It floats on the surface of the water removing films of contaminants, toxins and surface waste.  The problem I persoanlly have found, these are very good but duckweed likes to get tangled in the roots of floating plants and stems of lilies etc…

Get rid of duckweed before it takes over the pond by increasing aeration at the bottom, manually removing plants from the surface and reducing nutrients that create bottom sediment.

Add natural predators of duckweed, such as Koi, grass carp, goldfish and domesticated waterfowl. Alone these biological controls cannot remove the problem, but if introduced to the pond before duckweed begins to grow, they can assist with duckweed control.

Read more at Gardening Know How: Controlling Duckweed – How To Kill Duckweed https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/weeds/duckweed-control.htm

A plant that uses the same enzymes and helps to combat the spread of duckweek is

Veronica beccabunga (Brooklime)

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Nursery Construction

The digger and dumper truck are back, now for some ground scraping and stoning, as well as erecting 2 more frames for a further 2 greenhouses.  Also looking as starting the feature for the front of the main entrance.

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Front of shop area is now underway.

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Nursery Construction

More tunnels are needed as we start sowing seeds for next year. But we had not expected storm Callum to be quite so destructive.

The ground was prepared and the tunnel erected perfectly tight, but then we had storm Callum the wind was very strong and the poles at either end could not support the structure.

The end hoop has been removed the other side recemented in.  It is supported for now but it will have to be taken down and sorted.

Nursery Construction

We had all of the plants on trays of water on tables, which i must say made it very wet whenever we had to move them, which can be quite often.

The problem is not only water  but it they were near the edge of the polytunnels the table could be knocked over.

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So we converted to having everything on matting on the floor.

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Quality growers of pond plants, from lilies to bulrushes, from floating plants to deep water.