Pond Clearing latest

Saturday saw us back up at Motcombe on pond clearing duties. Since our previous visit on Wednesday the wind and rain had broken up the duckweed in the inaccessible part of the pond and sent it out into the open part. Because it was much thinner than previous and the wind was not so strong it didn't come towards the bank as quickly as before so it was a one woman job. By the end of the day I had removed about as much as it is going to be possible to remove. It's not going to be possible to eradicate the weed altogether but by regularly scooping out a few net fulls it should be kept under control.

Mark meanwhile spent the day working to clear scrub and brambles around another pond so that we can get in to clear weed from it. This pond has marginal and floating plants which are being swamped by Fairy Moss rather than duckweed.

The weather forecast for this week was not promising but as Monday seemed to be one of the better days, at least early in the day, we decided to go back and get on with the second pond.

Mark spent some time finishing clearing scrub while I scooped a bit more duckweed off the first pond and then we set to on the Fairy Moss. This is a very different kettle of fish to remove. The duckweed is smaller, lighter and obligingly drops to the bottom of the net. The Fairy Moss on the other hand is larger and more bulky and hangs over the edge of the net. It does drift a bit but not so readily as the duckweed and this fact together with the presence of other vegetation growing in and on the pond is going to make it difficult to get under control.

I have to say though that the Fairy Moss looked beautiful. With the water glistening in between the thick succulent leaves it resembled the yoke of the top that I am knitting in moss stitch using a leaf green yarn with a silver thread running through it (Louise Harding Jasmine in Leaf Green). I think that whenever I wear the top it will remind me of this pond.

We called it a day earlier than usual because of the forecast for rain (we had stuck it out through a couple of heavy showers) and got packed up and on our way just before it started to rain. There was a torrential downpour and the roads very quickly became quite treacherous.