Duckweed

18 years ago

Noticing toads in our garden for the last few years, my wife and I installed a small wildlife pond last winter.

This unfortunately promptly seemed to spring a leak and (whilst waiting to rebuild it) I installed a second much smaller pond nearby. The original pond has now been replaced and is fine.

The good news is that frogs have moved in to both ponds (no idea from where). The bad news is that my wildlife pond supplier could not supply the oxygenating plants until May and, in my eagerness to get things going this Spring, I bought a few (unlabelled but supposedly safe) plants from my local gardening centre which I have since discovered included canadian pondweed and what I now know to be some sort of duckweed.

I have replaced the Canadian pondweed with hornwort and various other natives now, but cannot get rid of the duckweed which breaks into tiny pieaces and comes back whatever I do

Is duckweed really that bad - one or teo people seems to thing that tadpoles eat it ?

Any advice would be appreciated

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Comments (4)

chippewacat
18 years ago
Hi--

try this link, as it may help you find ways of living with the benefits of duckweed!

all the best for your wildlife pond, it is amazing what will find its way there!

Hopefully not a grassnake, but then again, wildlife gardening does mean mean one can actually control what flora and fauna live there--just give a helping hand.

Chip

Here is a link that might be useful: duckweed
tuggers
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks for the comment Chip. I feel a bit more relaxed about it now
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big_kid
18 years ago
Very interesting article but I'm still not convinced 'cause I bloomin' hate the stuff!

Someone once suggested flooding the pond as being the only solution. Haven't tried it myself, but I do keep on top of mine with a constant battle.
alison_froglady
18 years ago
I ended up with duckweed last year which came from some plants I had given. I just took out what I could and then when it died off in the winter I thought that would be it. Then I noticed it back this year so I dealt with it straight away - meaning that everytime I saw any I pulled it out. I have found that this was a good solution and I only have very small pockets of it every now and then. But I actually like it. It is lovely to see a little froggys head poking up out of it.
I also have a very small prefab pond away from my 'real pond' which I put some of my plants in last autumn. The duckweed has gone mad in there and I can't see any water surface,but although it is very tiny a couple of frogs have moved into it. They obviously do not mind the duckweed.

Here is a link that might be useful: alisons nature reserve

Duckweed

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chippewacat

tuggers
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chippewacat

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