Winterize Your Pond

Photography by Brian Francis

Use this checklist to prepare your water garden for winter weather, from seasonably cool to downright freezing.

Pond

Properly winterizing your pond will help keep it in great shape. Check the water temperature weekly as fall arrives. When it starts to drop below 70° Fahrenheit, it’s time to take action in each of the following categories.

Plants

Trim water plants, removing dying or dead leaves.
Divide and repot plants you’ll overwinter, such as water lilies or bog plants. In northern zones, you can overwinter hardy water lilies and some bog plants outdoors, provided they are covered with 2 1/2 to 3 feet of water.
Stop feeding tropical lilies about six weeks before your area’s first frost. If you intend to overwinter lilies indoors, bring them in before heavy frost occurs.
Hardy bog plants, such as cattail, sweet flag, bulrush, iris, rushes (not pickerel weed), houttuynia, buttercup, and horsetail, will survive freezing solid in shallow water. Allow leaf stalks to remain in place to permit air circulation to roots.

Water

Refresh the water in your pond, replacing at least half. If water looks murky the next day, drain the pond again and replace about half once more.
Sieve excess sludge using a skimmer/fish net (#126448). Don’t remove all debris and mud—some pond dwelling creatures burrow in it to hibernate.
For your own comfort, tackle these tasks before water temps tumble below 60° F.

Leaves

Suspend netting just above the water surface to catch falling leaves. If your pond has a skimmer, forego the netting, but be sure to empty the skimmer basket daily.

Fish

Give fish a wheat germ-based food (#39555) when water temperature decreases to 60° F. Stop feeding when water temperature falls to 50° F.

Pump

If you choose to let the pump run all winter in northerly zones, add fresh water throughout winter to maintain the pond’s water level. In warmer climates, pumps and aerators must run year-round.
If water temperature will fall below 40° F and your pond has fish, elevate the pump a foot or more off the bottom. This will allow the fish to hibernate at the bottom, where it is warmer, and will also help prevent the pump from clogging with leaves and debris.
If you’re closing the pond for the winter, remove the pump, and then service and store it where it won’t freeze. Transfer your fish to a well-oxygenated aquarium.

Filter

Check your filter before winter sets in. Clean, replace, or refresh filtration materials.

Heater

Add a pond or stock tank heater when the water surface starts to freeze.

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