Keep or get rid of the pond?

14 years ago

Hello everyone!

I'm new here and completely ignorant about ponds. Would you help? This is my situation: We live in PA but we're closing on our retirement home in central Florida at the end of this month. We're buying a foreclosed house, which means it has been vacant and uncared-for for about a year, but it looks like it has been neglected for a long time before that. I've had experience with house repairs but never have I had to make a decision about a pond.

There is a pond in this foreclosed house, but it has over-grown grass all around it, plus garbage and God knows what else is in there. It is also very close to the sliding doors leading to the back yard (a weird place to put a pond). We thought about getting rid of it, but coming here looking for ideas on how to do that, I thought that maybe we can save it (?).

The problem is that we won't be living in the house for at least a year and a half while we repair it and prepare for retirement. How can we store it for now (where it is), if we can save it, or should we just get rid of it? If get rid of it, how? If storage, how?

We thought of emptying it out and putting a plastic or something over it to cover it and to prevent water from accumulating there or animals falling in and dying, etc.---how practical is this? When we close on the house we'll only be in Florida for under a week. Can we store it or get rid of it in this short amount of time?

Thank you in advance for your advice.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (3)

koidog
14 years ago
What kind of pond is it (above/below ground, concrete/pre-made plastic/rubber liner), how big is it (surface area/gallons) and how close is it to the back door?

Ponds can be easy to maintain or a real pain, depending on the design. Any information you have on drains, filters, pumps, etc. would help me help you.
gardenbutt
14 years ago
First and foremost you may want to check it and see if there are fish in it or plant containers.If so I would offer them to others.You may get a pond person in and they can help you to find out other information about it.
Personally for the time being if I were you I would drain it.Clean it out and cover it.If it is small enough I would use plywood, something solid enough you can walk on ,, and plastic or a tarp over it to keep the water out..I would also put a warning sign.
This way you could do your work, get settled in and then figure out what you wish to do with it.There would also be no worries about animals or children wandering in to it before your living there.This is all very easy to take care of in a few hours, so it would fit into your schedule as well.
After your settled in then I would come back to the group with all the pertinent information and ask questions.You may or may not have a pump in it.You will have to locate the electric lines as well.If you drain it you will know if it has a bottom drain or any filter system, etc,,
The area it is in may not be that odd.When we landscape and install water gardens, one of the first things we do is go through the house looking out the windows for areas to place specimen plants, statuary or the water features.This way people can enjoy them in or out.Another reason it could be close to the sliding doors is because the previous owners enjoyed leaving the doors open and listening to the water sounds from falls or even frogs, in Florida, maybe even the smells from the tropical lilies drift in at night.
Good luck with it
Related Discussions
How to get rid of pond
Q
Comments (10)
Sorry you feel the necessity of getting rid of the pond. Step 1: Drain the pond down sufficiently so that you can catch any fish and see if you have any neighbor's kids that want them or local school or local aquarium store. Step 2: Take a box cutter or sharp knife and at the lowest point in the pond slice the liner (make sure your cuts go all the way through) making cuts at least a foot or so long. Make several cuts. This is necessary to eliminate water accumulation even after you put soil on top of it (if you choose to bury it). Step 2: Assuming there are rocks you want to save... move them out of the area. You can choose to haul the liner out (probably easiest to cut it out in sections) or fold it in and bury it. If you plan to plant trees/shrubs in the same area you will have to remove the liner otherwise it will create problems with root growth. Step 3: Remove pumps and pump/skimmer housings. Not sure of the age of your kids but hire a couple of teenagers and give them shovels to move everything else into the remaining hole in the ground (bury larger rocks or create a rock garden). You may find it necessary to purchase topsoil to fill in the hole - buy it wholesale by the cubic yard...don't try to buy it by the bag since (depending on the size of the pond and left-over hole) you may need anywhere from 1 to 10 cubic yards of material. After it's filled (you need to overfill by a few inches to allow for settling) you can seed and start mowing or turn it into a garden. Alternative 1a: Buy several "hidden leash" dog collars; put on children and activate circuit around pond to keep them away from the pond. Or find local neighbors or local school or local aquarium folks interested in adopting kids. Keep pond and enjoy peace and quiet. :-)) ---David
...See More
WANTED: How to get rid of an aggressive pond plant
Q
Comments (5)
SOOO not organic, however, glyphosate will do the trick. That's the active ingredient in Round-Up. The problem with Round-Up isn't what you might think. The problem is that it has a detergent in it, designed to make it "thinner", (less surface tension, a surfactant), and the detergent is poisonous to plants and animals. The glyphosate just stops the photosynthesis cycle- which your fish and turtles are not reliant on. Look up something called Fusillade II (fluazifop-P-butyl), Eraser-AQ (glyphosate), and then a non-detergent type of surfactant like Dyne-Amic.
...See More
keep or get rid of older marble tub?
Q
Comments (18)
If you like the tub just fine, and don't welcome the time/trouble and expense of a new tub, I'd suggest trying to just restore it, if you can. As I suspected earlier, it can be restored with just automotive finishing compound and a high speed buffer with a wool pad. From the link below: Q: I have a cultured marble vanity top that is severely scratched and has no shine. Is there anything I can do to restore the finish? Gayle Crawford, Rio Rancho, N. Mex. A: Kevin O'Connor replies: Dan Maki, who has been making, installing, and refinishing cultured marble for nearly 30 years at Cultured Marble Products Ltd., Sacramento, Calif., tells me that the sheen of this material comes from a layer of clear polyester-resin gel coat applied to an opaque layer of fiberglass-reinforced polyester mixed with limestone dust. In his experience, the most common cause of scratched, dull gel coat is cleaners like Ajax or Comet. Cultured marble should only be cleaned with liquids that have no abrasives. Maki says it's fairly easy to bring back the shine and remove shallow scratches using an automotive finishing compound and a high-speed, 1,500- to 2,500-rpm buffer fitted with a wool pad. Rub it in by hand, wait until a haze forms, then buff it off. For deep scratches that don't go all the way through to the fiberglass, wet-sand with the compound and an 800- or 1,000-grit wet-and-dry paper. After sanding, give these spots a good buffing. Once your countertop is back in shape, he recommends shining it occasionally with liquid Gel-Gloss, a polishing wax developed just for cultured marble. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ It has no major problems, but has quite a bit of etching and some staining from our hard water that is impossible to remove. Once you have it restored, I'd suggest either cleaning or at least drying the tub after each use, or as often as is possible. Now I'm looking forward to restoring the shower walls to their original sheen. Sue Here is a link that might be useful: This Old House -- Restoring Cultured Marble
...See More
How To Get Rid of Pond Vegetation
Q
Comments (0)
I had a small pond deepened and it is great except for the vegetation that has started trying to take over. it is small, lily pad looking stuff along with slime. I live in East Texas - is there any product that I can spray on this mess to kill it? I have a horse farm, and my horses drink out of it, also have dogs running loose but they seldom visit the pond. Thanks for any help. Judith
...See More
betsyf
13 years ago
Sitting here going thru old pond posts and ran across this one. Wondering if you ever came up with a plan for your Florida pond. I live in IL but have a vacation home in south Florida on the Gulf side. The house was purchased pre=foreclosure in 2007 for use as a vacation home. Like your house, it was a mess, covered in weeds and filled with junk. It also has a pond in the backyard that was icky. One of the first things we did after closing was drain the pond so we knew what was living in it. It's not a big pond - about 12' x 6' oval shaped and 24" at deepest point and also made of concrete painted sky blue. Lots of leaves, pine needles and tadpoles plus a few mosquito fish which I scooped out and saved. After refilling I put in a pond pump and the tads and fish. We were there for 4 weeks that time before we returned to IL. The pump was removed from the pond before we left FL. Next time we went down, put the pump back in and netted out what debris was in there but water was back to icky.
What I did was find water hyacinth plants - can import them to FL and they are not sold in the stores near me. So I found a local guy who had some in his pond. He gave me about 12 large plants for free since he had an overabundance in his pond and was tossing them in his burn pile. It's been over 2 years since I added the hyacinths and pond remains clear even without the pump going. Only filtration is the hyacinths. Pond life is abundant. Neighbor tells me she can hear the toads at night. We only go down to the house a few times a year so when we put the pump with a bubble spray in while we're there, it's only for the sound of the water bubbling.
Hyacinths are all over Florida in ponds, swamps, creeks, etc. If you're willing to harvest some yourself, you can get them for free. I would get emough to cover 1/4 of the surface because they will multiply like crazy. When we visit our house, the whole surface is covered so we have to pull out at least half of them and burn them.
Hope that helps.

Keep or get rid of the pond?

Comments (3)

koidog

gardenbutt

Related Discussions

betsyf

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US