Sorting out pond plants
 

Can anyone advise me as to the best time to sort out, repot etc pond plants growing in aquatic baskets.

I only planted my pond up in april/may time and did it in a bit of a rush (plants put in, in nursery pots or in too small a basket to save time). Consequently some plants have outgrown their baskets and in the case of a couple of plants that were put together in one big pot, they need providing with their own pots/baskets. I also need to thin out the oxegenator (elodea) which has gone berserk with growth.

Can I do this now/in autumn or should i wait until spring?

Thanks

I was in sorting out two ponds this week as a practise for a third which does need iot dione this week, most of the growing season is over and I dont want to leave it much later as I feel I may disturb amphibians settling in for the winter.

One of those 'big' paddling pools with the inflatable collars is very useful to pump the water to so it can be kept and reused, if you are UK based B&Q sell or sold a 10ft diameter 2ft deep one for about £60. If you are looking do not get the paddling pools with inflatable walls, I found them to be unstable.

Thanks for the reply.

The 'amphibian' presence poses a dilemma for me too. i have only just 'aquired' frogs in the pond and dont want to disturb them or drive them away now. Nor do i want to disturb them once they have started to hibernate. On the other hand, the work needs doing, and i particularly need to thin out the oxygenator weed - which is a favourite haunt of one of the frogs at the moment.

I dont think i need to go as far as a paddling pool as a temporary pond while i sort the pond out. its a very small pondso i think i can manage with buckets and do each plant one at a time. Thanks for the info though, it would be usefull with a bigger pond than mine.

I dont think active frogs would be that put out, I dont know about newts but I would avoid disturbing hibernating amphibians. Elodea can just be ripped out from the side etc and the disturbance will be minimal, if they are using it as a water bed leave clumps dense enough to support them I think frogs are on slightly negatively bouyant so it wont take much to hold them up.