How many times have you been in some ones else’s back yard, or lets not mention your own back yard, and WHEW, what a smell. Just a wee bit more of mother natural hit your nostrils than you might find at the city dump.
Don’t feel bad, its just the way things are, and you better get used to it, or is their a halfway decent solution to this rather nasty situation, short of bringing in a backhoe and remove the back yard. I know your local landscape contractor would definitely approve of the above idea, and the work, not to mention the beneficial affects you would be having on your local economy.
Lets first look at the culprit here “definitely not you” so let's attempt to blame this horrific problem on mother nature. Which will get you off the hook for the above natural disaster, which you so lovingly call a pond.
Problem A:
Fish or any kind of animal which you are currently housing in your pond. These beautiful tranquil creatures, have the unfortunate tendency to excrete waste into their own living area. Also the bothersome little buggers don’t eat everything you so generously throw into their pond, leaving chunks of food to rot, decay, and in general cause such a nasty order that your neighbors won’t speak to you anymore.
Economical Solution to Problem A:
Get rid of all the fish, and anything else, and anything else that seems to be sucking air. I am not 100% shuer, but I think you could probably stir fry a gold fish if things got hard, and you would have definitely eliminated the stinky smell in your back yard. All Jokes aside. If you don’t like to do a lot of maintenance, but would rather enjoy your weekends. DO NOT try to put fish in the pond. You can still enjoy the trickling, and gurgling sounds made by your water feature, and also enjoy the natural look of a beautiful pond or water feature in your own back yard. 80% of my customers “after a little gentle nudging by yours truly” manage to enjoy their ponds without fish.
Expensive Solution to problem A:
Yes it is possible to have fish without the smell, you just need to recreate the environment you will find in mother nature, using a wide range of modern technology, ranging from pumps to circulate as much mater as possible, skimmers, bio-filters, and a wide range of filtering products to remove algae, leaves, debris, dirt, and waste products to the best of your ability from those wonderful little fish. This is just the first step mind you, don’t forget that fish are very much living creatures, and they don’t live very well in a block of ice, so the depth of your pond, depending on your location, needs to be 3 to 4 feet deep, so your fish don’t turn in to fish ice cubes. Or you could simple exterminate your fish every fall, or let them come to an untimely end. Which is not the most family friendly thing you could do. Not to mention the cost to restock your pond every spring.
By the way were just getting warmed up here. Some people enjoy feeding their fish, others would rate this daily pastime, right up there with push mowing your yard. Also if you live in the city your water has chlorine, which is rather a problem for fish, so you will have to buy another chemical to take it out. Also the PH of your water coming out of the tap wont work either, so you will have to add another chemical to fix this man made problem. Now if you still have a stinky pond, or you have floaters, or if you have so much algae you can not even see the floaters any more, then your only option is to go back to your pet store, or get in touch with that professional pond landscaper, and get more chemicals added to fix these problems. If you still can’t breath in your own back yard, not to fear. You simply need to add more, or bigger bio-filters, or you could go high tech, and put UV lights everywhere, to kill off any living microorganism that is making your life hell.
As you can see I am somewhat biased to economical option A, or stir fry, its up to you.
One other very important thing to factor in when landscaping your pond, you also need plants in and around your pond, not only to make your pond landscaping look great, but to help create a more natural eco system, like what you would find in mother nature. Plants no mater the variety do at some point die, decay, loose leaves, and in general create their own rather “joyful” smell. They are living things as well. Yes you do need them to make a beautiful water feature, but a good landscape professional will only plant certain attractive varieties, and limit deciduous trees and bushes you plant near your pond.
I have over 20 years of experience in the landscape garden industry, right here in the Walla Walla and Tri Cities areas I have installed a wide range of both landscaped fish ponds / water features, and many very natural and attractive water features without fish. Either way you go, this job is definitely not for a homeowner to do. I also strongly recommend when you are watching the diy shows. Let them do their jobs, be entertained, but for your own best interest, personal financial savings, and your families sanity please don’t try to copy there professional landscape job, because what you don’t see, is that it has literally taken them years of experience to get their job right.
Pond landscaping design, pond instillation, & pond landscape maintenance needs to be done by a landscape professional, who has the experience to do it right.
Please contact Ace Landscaping if you would like more detailed information on: ponds, water features, or landscaping. We would like the chance to earn your business for years to come.
Thanks for reading my landscaping blog!