I have one of those small free-standing garden waterfalls, which
you can see he

http://www.wintertime.com/OH/pond.jpg

What with the Japanese maple, the mother fern (slightly visible
under the maple, dangling over the pond), and the pandorea (on
the trellis above the pond), all sorts of stuff is constantly
falling into the water. Not surprisingly, some of it works its
way into the lower rear part of the pond where the pump is, and
gets sucked into the pump's intake blades. In particular, there are
some tiny stems (from the fern? the pandorea?) that are stiff
enough to get caught in the plastic blades instead of passing
through the pump, which brings the pump to a halt.

I've tried wrapping wire mesh around the bottom of the pump,
but the darned little stems still manage to get through. The
pump is wedged into the little cave as it is, so I can't use
anything that would create more height below the pump.

There may not be any solution to the problem, but I thought
I'd ask here in case I'm overlooking anything thin that would
allow water to pass through but not stems, leaves, flowers, etc.


Thanks!
Patty