Besides the leaves, the ponds don't get schuck and blossom fall off the
maple tree. I think that is one of the most surprising things about having
a pond, how messy one's trees are.

I will have the ponds un-netted and filter going by the time the seeds fall
and the skimmer will catch the majority of those. Plus, unlike the schucks
& blossoms, the helicopter-seed pods float for quite a while to pick out
what hasn't floated over to the skimmer.

Then there's always the relaxing winter thought of not worrying about a
raccoon, heron or Kingfisher dining on my wintering fish. ;o) ~ jan


On Sun, 09 Feb 2003 15:19:21 GMT, wrote:

yeah.. that is the obvious alternative. clean the pond end of summer when the water
temp is still above 55oF and the fish immune system is still active and then net the
pond to keep the leaves out. remove the net in spring when the leaves quit blowing
around big time. Ingrid

~ jan wrote:
I suck my pond bottoms clean with a shop vac and then use
window screening and wait till spring.


See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website