??? :'(
I noticed last week that my pond has got really stinky.
The water is very full of silt and hard to see through. The pond weed oxygenator is mostly turning black (although the top four or so inches are still green). THe surface is covered in duck weed and in spring there was a lot of blanket weed, which I tried to clear out, but a lot of it had toad spawn in it, so I couldn't remove all of it.
It's only a year old.
I pulled out a load of silk and blackened plants.
But surprisingly life seems to be thriving. The toadpoles are growing huge and now most have hind legs. The baby newts are adorable! There are beetles of some sorts and loads of pond snail babies. Plus what looked like miniature clams (about 1cm across) and what might have been a tiny mussle, but was probably a seed pod! And the waterlilly has put up its first ever flower!
Should I panic? Should I continue clearing out the pond? (it takes a long time as I have to check everything for life that is incapable of getting itself back in the pond!)
(PS - top tip - don't clear out a stinky pond with bare hands. It took about 10 washes with anti-bacterial soap, normal soap, washing up liquid and finally bleach to get teh stink out of my hands!)