Components of landscaping

When those first chilly mornings of fall arrive, it's time to start planning to winterize your pond landscape. With a few preparations and precautions, your pond landscape will be prepared to survive through the winter and bring you countless more hours of enjoyment next season. Let's take a separate look at each component of your pond landscape and learn what's necessary for it's healthy survival.

The quality of water in your pond landscape will affect the survival of every living thing in it. As fall leaves start to drop, take great care to remove any debris from the pond landscape. Decaying plant material only drives the ammonia level up, which will eventually kill any remaining fish and make an unpleasant smell to boot. Changing out one quarter of the pond landscape's water and replacing it with fresh water will provide an immediate drop in the ammonia level, but be sure to use a dechlorinating product to avoid harming your fish and landscaping plants. It's a good idea to give your filter one last cleaning for the season about one week after changing the water in your pond landscape.

Zeolite is a natural mineral that absorbs ammonia in the water of your pond landscape. It can be used to help keep your pond landscape healthy all year round, but it is especially important to add a fresh batch to last through the winter months.

Oxygen is essential for a healthy pond landscape ecosystem, so you will want to make sure that there is always an opening somewhere in the ice when the landscape freezes over. Landscape suppliers specializing in pond equipment sell aeration pumps that are specially suited to handle this job during the winter, and also provide enough movement to keep a hole open in the ice. Never crack the ice on your pond landscape in order to open it. The shock can be detrimental to your fish.

Trim back your pond landscape plants for the winter, scrape algae and scum off the pots and move the plants to a deeper section of your pond landscape to avoid contact with the ice that will be forming above them. A good rule of thumb is to plan for a depth of eight inches of surface ice on your pond landscape.

Most pond landscapes are stocked with koi and goldfish. These fish are natural cold water lovers, and should winter over well with a few precautions. Ammonia and carbon monoxide are both by-products created by your fish, and can turn the pond landscape water toxic if oxygen is not provided for circulation. As the water in your pond landscape becomes colder and colder, your fish will gradually begin to hibernate. Slowly cut back on feeding them, and once the pond landscape reaches steady temperatures in the 50 degree range, cease to feed them at all. If there is any food left in their digestive track at the time of full hibernation, their systems will turn toxic, causing death.

Home landscapers should find that following these winterization techniques for their pond landscapes will result in a higher survival rate of their landscape plants and fish come next spring.