Came back home yesterday from a trip out of state and went out to my pond to
find that the water had dropped more than a few inches. "Evaporation." I
thought until I remembered that we were on track to have the wettest May on
record. (I'd been down in Texas where the folks there had been talking about
needing rain so that's probably where that thought came from.) I looked
around and found that the Iris, Forget-me-nots, pennywort and mint had
formed a dam in the waterfalls that was diverting water outside the pond.

So, today was clean out the filter/falls and get in the pond day. I'd been
putting it off because of the weather and it's been pretty cool this spring.
I'd had a small algae bloom a couple of weeks back but the water now is
pretty clear. (That's unusual for my pond to clear this early.) I
"harvested" clay pond soil that the koi had knocked out of pots in their
digging that had now drifted to the deepest part of the pond and lay on the
bottom. The water here is about 4 feet so I was all the way under water
scrapping the clay into the pot I planned to use for the water lily I'd
found floating on the surface. Does anyone get this wet doing pond chores?
(Note to self: next time bring fish net to do this.)

I trimmed up the lilies, horsetails, and pennywort and put the stuff on the
mulch pile. I wish I'd never planted pennywort in the pond. It's escaped
into the yard and rapidly getting out of hand. I've broken my "no chemicals"
rule and trying to get the upper hand. Three water lilies are blooming.

Life is good.

JB