Hi

We've had a little pond for about 10 years now. Last year we had a
dreadful problem with blanket weed which suddenly appeared from nowhere
-- absolutely bloody awful stuff. I finally tried some kind of chemical
(having first tried the virtually-superstitious use of barley straw at
the insistence of my wife) ... no luck with either.

I was going to have another go with he chemical this year, when I read
that tadpoles eat blanket weed. Hoorah! I'd already got rid of the
fish I'd had last year (who ate all the the blasted tadpoles!), so I
thought that *this* year all our taddies would get on top of the weed
before it took off.

And thhen TODAY we discovered a newt in the pond! First one ever. And
I hear that they eat tadpoles voraciously.

I want tadpoles, and newts, and NO WEED, please! Any advice here?

Cheers
John

In article lalaw44-4BE184.13563404042008@netmask218-233-240-
128.youiwe.co.kr, says...
Hi

We've had a little pond for about 10 years now. Last year we had a
dreadful problem with blanket weed which suddenly appeared from nowhere
-- absolutely bloody awful stuff. I finally tried some kind of chemical
(having first tried the virtually-superstitious use of barley straw at
the insistence of my wife) ... no luck with either.

I was going to have another go with he chemical this year, when I read
that tadpoles eat blanket weed. Hoorah! I'd already got rid of the
fish I'd had last year (who ate all the the blasted tadpoles!), so I
thought that *this* year all our taddies would get on top of the weed
before it took off.

And thhen TODAY we discovered a newt in the pond! First one ever. And
I hear that they eat tadpoles voraciously.

I want tadpoles, and newts, and NO WEED, please! Any advice here?

Cheers
John

Too much light and too many nutrients cause blanket weed
Cutting the light by planting larger plants would help, Lilies etc reduce
the light available to the blanket weed, then something like water
millfoil for the tadpoles to take refuge in which also helps mop up
surplus nutrient try and avoid filling the pond with tap water use rain
water instead, this also helps keep nutrient levals down
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

On Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:56:39 +0100, jal wrote:

Hi

We've had a little pond for about 10 years now. Last year we had a
dreadful problem with blanket weed which suddenly appeared from nowhere
-- absolutely bloody awful stuff. I finally tried some kind of chemical
(having first tried the virtually-superstitious use of barley straw at
the insistence of my wife) ... no luck with either.

I was going to have another go with he chemical this year, when I read
that tadpoles eat blanket weed. Hoorah! I'd already got rid of the
fish I'd had last year (who ate all the the blasted tadpoles!), so I
thought that *this* year all our taddies would get on top of the weed
before it took off.

And thhen TODAY we discovered a newt in the pond! First one ever. And
I hear that they eat tadpoles voraciously.

I want tadpoles, and newts, and NO WEED, please! Any advice here?

Cheers
John

Get another pond. Always nice to have a spare.
--
http://www.orderonlinepickupinstore.co.uk
Ah fetch it yourself if you can't wait for delivery
http://www.freedeliveryuk.co.uk
Or get it delivered for free

"jal" wrote in message
...
Hi

We've had a little pond for about 10 years now. Last year we had a
dreadful problem with blanket weed which suddenly appeared from nowhere
-- absolutely bloody awful stuff. I finally tried some kind of chemical
(having first tried the virtually-superstitious use of barley straw at
the insistence of my wife) ... no luck with either.

I was going to have another go with he chemical this year, when I read
that tadpoles eat blanket weed. Hoorah! I'd already got rid of the
fish I'd had last year (who ate all the the blasted tadpoles!), so I
thought that *this* year all our taddies would get on top of the weed
before it took off.

And thhen TODAY we discovered a newt in the pond! First one ever. And
I hear that they eat tadpoles voraciously.

I want tadpoles, and newts, and NO WEED, please! Any advice here?


I learned from experience last year that newts do eat tadpoles. So this
year I'm moving my few clumps of developing frog eggs from my pond to a
Belfast sink in the garden, with pond water, and putting a net over it to
keep the newts out until the tadpoles are ready to go.

someone

Our problem is that we cannot encourage frogs to our pond!

Should I pinch some frogspawn and artificially inseminate? ;-)

--

Baal

I smile and go off waving
(Amiably) - for that's my way

http://www.helden.org.uk
"someone" wrote in message
...

"jal" wrote in message
...
Hi

We've had a little pond for about 10 years now. Last year we had a
dreadful problem with blanket weed which suddenly appeared from nowhere
-- absolutely bloody awful stuff. I finally tried some kind of chemical
(having first tried the virtually-superstitious use of barley straw at
the insistence of my wife) ... no luck with either.

I was going to have another go with he chemical this year, when I read
that tadpoles eat blanket weed. Hoorah! I'd already got rid of the
fish I'd had last year (who ate all the the blasted tadpoles!), so I
thought that *this* year all our taddies would get on top of the weed
before it took off.

And thhen TODAY we discovered a newt in the pond! First one ever. And
I hear that they eat tadpoles voraciously.

I want tadpoles, and newts, and NO WEED, please! Any advice here?


I learned from experience last year that newts do eat tadpoles. So this
year I'm moving my few clumps of developing frog eggs from my pond to a
Belfast sink in the garden, with pond water, and putting a net over it to
keep the newts out until the tadpoles are ready to go.

someone




--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Baal writes
Our problem is that we cannot encourage frogs to our pond!

Should I pinch some frogspawn and artificially inseminate? ;-)

Ideally, no, because of the risk of spreading disease, or so the usual
advice runs.

If the spawn is from somewhere close, then I can't see that'd be a
problem - but if there were breeding frogs close by, you'd expect them
to have found their way to your pond.

Are you sure you're providing everything they need? In particular, look
at the immediate surroundings of the pond - do you have enough dampish
vegetation for foraging?

I smile and go off waving
(Amiably) - for that's my way

http://www.helden.org.uk
"someone" wrote in message
.. .

"jal" wrote in message
...
Hi

We've had a little pond for about 10 years now. Last year we had a
dreadful problem with blanket weed which suddenly appeared from nowhere
-- absolutely bloody awful stuff. I finally tried some kind of chemical
(having first tried the virtually-superstitious use of barley straw at
the insistence of my wife) ... no luck with either.

I was going to have another go with he chemical this year, when I read
that tadpoles eat blanket weed. Hoorah! I'd already got rid of the
fish I'd had last year (who ate all the the blasted tadpoles!), so I
thought that *this* year all our taddies would get on top of the weed
before it took off.

And thhen TODAY we discovered a newt in the pond! First one ever. And
I hear that they eat tadpoles voraciously.

I want tadpoles, and newts, and NO WEED, please! Any advice here?


I learned from experience last year that newts do eat tadpoles. So this
year I'm moving my few clumps of developing frog eggs from my pond to a
Belfast sink in the garden, with pond water, and putting a net over it to
keep the newts out until the tadpoles are ready to go.

someone





--
Kay

On Sun, 6 Apr 2008 14:52:03 +0100, K wrote:

Baal writes
Our problem is that we cannot encourage frogs to our pond!

Should I pinch some frogspawn and artificially inseminate? ;-)

Ideally, no, because of the risk of spreading disease, or so the usual
advice runs.

If the spawn is from somewhere close, then I can't see that'd be a
problem - but if there were breeding frogs close by, you'd expect them
to have found their way to your pond.


They should find their way on their own so they have a network of
local ponds to fall back on if one fails or is lost.

Are you sure you're providing everything they need? In particular, look
at the immediate surroundings of the pond - do you have enough dampish
vegetation for foraging?

I smile and go off waving
(Amiably) - for that's my way
--
http://www.freedeliveryuk.co.uk

My parents have a small concrete-lined pond, with a shallower marshy bit at one end and a small island. Tadpoles and newts thrive. You probably need some tadpoles to feed the newts. There are also dragonfly/damselfly nymphs in the litter at the bottom, scary things if you dredge one out, and they eat a lot of tadpoles. But always a few tadpoles survive to be froglets sitting on the lilypads. And all of this wildlife appreciates a bit of weed to hide in, lilypads, irises, etc. Tadpoles are there to be eaten.