Yay! Yay! Yay! We got the pond cleared. i say *we* but actually DP did most of it as it was REALLY hard work and i have weedy arms.


Hard at work

I don't think the Irises could ever have been thinned out before as they had taken over the majority of the pond. Their root system alone was about 15cm deep and had formed a thick matt over the base. Beneath that was a layer of stinky sludge, so the pond turned out to be a good foot deeper than we thought! We decided to remove all the irises (as it was easier) and we have hacked a few off to put back in. We will also get a few other plants now that we have the space - it looks about 3 times the size now!!! DP had to be very careful as there were so many frogs in there and we saw at least 3 baby ones.


Difficult to tell i know, but the baby frog above it is about 2-3cm long

We created a "beach" area, so the frogs can get in and out, with some pebbles as there wasn't one before (well they didn't need one as the roots made it much more shallow.) and we replaced the "frog house" so they have some shelter. Now we just need to replace the vegetation as soon as we can and put the water snails back and it will all be lovely :o)