Preparing Your Water Garden for Winter

The first thing you should do is begin cutting down vegetation of living plants in the pond. If you live where it freezes in the winter the foliage of these plants will die back. To keep them from fouling the water simply cut them off and remove them.

Hardy pond plants (perennials) will begin to regrow in the spring as the water warms. Tropical pond plants (annuals) can be removed all together. Floating plants which are basically all tropical cannot be overwintered anywhere but a sunny heated greenhouse. Marginal or bog plants can be brought inside and treated as house plants, near any sunny window and watered a few times per week.

Once vegetation is moved, leave everything where it was growing. Do not move plants to the deepest part of the pond. If they are hardy, they are hardy at the level they grow on. Submerged too deep they can die and rot.

Next remove any debris that may be in the pond such as leaves. Using a net can get these fall leaves and twigs out. You can turn off the pump or let it run to leave a hole in the ice up to plant zone 5.

To prevent total freeze over and loss of fish keep a trough deicer in the pond. It will keep a small home unfrozen in the top of the ice where fish will be able to get fresh oxygen. This is what prevents overwinter fish kill. Pond fish don't die from cold but from lack of oxygen and built up gases. One tiny hole in the ice will prevent this. Never break the ice with an object as this will cause fish stress and they could die. If you have a temporary pond freeze over, once a day simply boil some water and pour it slowly on one spot in the ice. You will create a small hole that will let bad gases escape, one opening per day will be fine to keep the fish alive.

Finally, if you live where leaves continually blow into the pond cover the pond with a pond netting. They are inexpensive and can be used over and over.