HOW TO KEEP THINGS LOOKING GOOD THROUGH TO SPRING - By Peter J May

You know the feeling a room has after you’ve taken down the Christmas decorations. It’s like that ‘post party’ feeling. Without people, things going on and pretty bits and pieces everywhere it can be somewhat depressing, indeed it can make you wonder why you bothered in the first place. It can be the same with water gardens right now.

The only cure is to tidy and clean up if necessary and appreciate the place from a different respect. The cure does presuppose that the room and the house and the situation are tolerable at the worst of times, and with a water garden it must be well designed and well built. It is to the surroundings and the way the pool and water garden have been landscaped into them that now become that more important. Even with the most natural and wildlife orientated pools the emphasis on its role in the garden as a landscape changes. The surface of the water is an extra source light and smoothness that can contrast with, or reflect the craggy winter landscape of its surroundings.

Even with the most natural and wildlife orientated pools the emphasis on its role in the garden as a landscape changes. The surface of the water is an extra source of light and smoothness that can contrast with, or reflect the craggy winter landscape of its surroundings.

BIOLOGICALLY SPEAKING

So if the surface of the pool needs to be clean for some sort of aesthetic satisfaction, it is no less important from a biological point of view. Traditionally we should be about to have the first frosts of winter, at which point things begin to grind to a halt below the surface. As the water temperature begins to drop to around 10°C the frenzy of fish and beasties gobbling each other up begins to slow down. At 7°C fish should not be feeding at all. At 5°C most biological activity has ceased, and from 4°C and 0°C water does something no other substance does on earth, and that is that instead of the more dense cold water sinking to the bottom of the pond, the colder water becomes less dense and stays on top. Here it will freeze solid below 0°C and the water underneath for a few more degrees has a protective blanket. At least no more muck or detritus can drop in, but any that is already in there is ready to start rotting as soon as temperatures begin to rise. The microbes responsible for this process need oxygen and this demand will activate a long time in advance of the higher plants that can oxygenate the water effectively, start to do their job. This combined with the very slow but measurable metabolism of the fish and other sleeping pond life, will put tremendous pressure on a biological system of a dirty or small pond.  So when it is iced over, ensure there is a hole in the ice for a bit of ‘gaseous exchange’.

Melt the hole with hot water or a pool heater. Breaking the ice stuns the fish

CLEANINESS IS NEXT TO BEING A PRETTY MUCH GODLIKE FIGURE, WHICH BRINGS OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES TOO.

 Any leaves you can prevent from falling in delays the day when you have to do that Almighty style Apocalyptic clean out; so net them off as soon as they land. Dredge out with a net as many you can that sink.

Lilies: any diseased or mottled leaves of retiring lilies should be given a gentle tug to part them from the parent tuber before they sink to rot below.

Floating plants like Water Lettuce (Pistia stratiotes)  and Water Hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes)  must be taken indoors and kept in light frost-free shade. Water Hyacinth can be potted up into a light, merely moist compost. Water Soldier (Stratiotes aloides)  will sink to the bottom before the first frosts whereas Frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae ) and Water Chestnut (Trapa natans) form nuts or buds that sink to the bottom to rise again the following year to form plantlets. Unfortunately the Frogbit will fall prey to predatory snails and the Water Chestnut is unlikely to form nuts in our climate, so they need rescuing to a pan of muddy water in good time before the party is over, so they can do their thing in the warm protective ambience of a greenhouse or light shed.

Pioneering marginals like Bog Bean (Menyanthes trifoliata), the Spearworts (Ranunculus flammula and R. lingua’ Grandiflora)  and Parrots Feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum syn. proserpinacoides) that seem intent on investigating the outer reaches of their universe should be cut back to home base: show them what you’re made of.  The same goes for those Hell’s Angels of the pond margins, the Reed Maces ( Typha angustifolia and Typha latifolia), and any of those suspect ‘Reedy’, ‘Rushy’ looking things that don’t seem to do much, apart from grow. Feel around the baskets to see which plants have linked up in a firm vegetative bond. A bit of basket busting may be in order to sort them out. If the problem is not too bad, you can leave that little nightmare until spring. 

Tender marginals need to be removed wholesale. Canna lilies can be potted up and plunged into a bed in cold frames, otherwise keep them cool but frost free and dry along with all the other exotics you have been tempted buy over the last few months. Once upon a time Arum lilies (Zantedeschia aethiopica ‘Crowborough’ ) and Lobelia cardinalis /(TRANNIE 14)/ were treated with the same respect, but now our winters seem quite bearable to them. The more exotic looking yellow and spotty leafed Zantedeschia elliotiana , Z. pentlandii  or the pink tinged Z. rehmannii should have been dried out since mid-July. Store them under greenhouse staging well above freezing. Bring them to life again in February.  

APOCALYPSE NOW?

If  ‘Apocalyptic clean out time’ does seem imminent and you are reading this during that mild patch of autumn like we often have in October in the UK, the time to do it is now. How will you know? If when you are dredging for lost leaves the net comes up full of last year’s half rotted maulm and it seems unfathomable, or if smelly bubbles break the water surface as you investigate the depths with the net then the situation is serious.

If you decide it is necessary, one consolation is that you will find the job more bearable now than you would in late April. The water will be warmer and there will be less chance of upsetting the development of tadpoles or herpetological nuptials. Leave the dredged gunk and detritus to drain on the poolside to allow any early-to-bed fauna to make their way back in for their winter snooze.

If you decide on the tactics of a jolly good dredging then a partial water change of one third to a half is advisable to dilute the disturbed toxins released from the pool sediment. This is a routine for serious fish keepers at this time of year anyway. Let the fresh tap water fall into the pool from a height and treat with pool conditioner to knock out the chlorine and other vileness they put in tap water.

“TO NET OR NOT TO NET JOSEPHINE ?”

"Here lies the rub!” If we are to make our pool all pretty and pristine for the winter months what aesthetics are there in a great plastic net draped over it for the next four months? If the pool is bubbling with a school of Koi carp, every bit, fin and gill worth their weight in platinum whilst a flock of Herons circle overhead like African Desert Vultures, then the obvious choice is to net. If there is a phalanx of willows precipitate to the pool edge with a prevailing mistral that will force-feed their load of salicylic acid ridden leaves into our precious pool – then again, net.

But some trees have small leaves that curl up and wiggle through all but the most tightly woven mesh, like the Acer dissectum or the Gleditsia,  in which case netting can then seem a pretty pointless exercise. Also if there is a persistent fall from variety of trees from the Holme Oaks in midsummer, with Robinias doing an early drop right through to the late Ash keys and tenacious young Beech, you could be netted for most of the year. 

If the pool is fairly self sufficient and well established and there are not too many trees about ready to loosen their foliage fall in the compass bearing of your pool, perhaps a compromise of netting from late October to December is in order. This will mean cutting the pond edge plants back to less than a third to allow the net to be pegged into place and leaving an escape route or access point for animal traffic – for not only the residents of your pool, but yours may be the only watering hole for all sorts of beasties for miles around.

“NOT NETTED, NEDDY”

Of course your pool may be too big to net or it may be equipped with all the refinements of sludge sucking filters and surface skimmers providing the sort of sterile sanctuary that most swimming pools don’t even run to, thus making leaf nets superfluous. For whatever reason not to net, you can opt to take full advantage of the scene you have created or will create.

Clear the surface. Light to the water surface is desirable in the winter months. You have probably already cut back the fleshy leafed early risers like the Marsh Marigolds (Caltha palustris), Bog Arums (Calla palustris) and the Water Forget-me-Not (Myosostis palustris), but leave the long grassy foliage to waft around in the breeze adding life to a seemingly lifeless scene. These reeds, rushes and grasses will double as cover for animals coming and going from the pool.( In small water gardens though, it may be necessary to remove the seed heads before they shed highly viable seed to all four corners of the neighbourhood.) Come the emergence of new growth in spring when the Marsh Marigolds burst into yellow flower in early April, you will have hardly noticed the flower free interlude.

If the frosts are slow to arrive, the foliage factor from some of the variegated water plants is a major bonus. The sword like leaves of the Iris laevigata ‘Variegata’, the variegated scented rush Acorus calamus ‘Variegatus’/ or the small tufty A. gramineus ‘Vareigatus’ are late to die down and are up early spring, brightening up the most moribund boggy patch. The variegated Manna grass(Glyceria maxima ‘Variegata’)  and the definitely evergreen and variegated Gardener’s garters (Phalaris arundinacea var. picta) add a splash of colour all year, but being somewhat rampant and difficult to contain, after the first year you don’t where they are going to come up next.

THE EASE OF FORMALITY

Formal water gardens in winter, with strong ‘bones’ of hard landscaping, can show how the water surface works in a visual combination with stone, brick or grass surfaces, or as a reflective surface. Life and movement can be added with fountains and rills. Without water moving upwards or outward then formal clipped plants give height and balance and softness in a third dimension. Box, Myrtle, Bay, Privet and Holly, (also Yew well away from the pool), are favoured for topiary.

With the formal harmony reflected, or even just a small part of it reflected in the water, it emphasises your awareness of the third dimension. It is like the Moorish love of stargazing into a pool, it makes you appreciate more the creation around you to see it as a reflection, because it looks new and different.

This can happen in more informal gardens but you are more dependent on large plants to help create the structure in your design. Trees that colour up in the autumn can be grouped together to form a cathedral in a kaleidoscope of colour, transfixing in a gently moving reflection.

TAKE A LEAF FROM THE JAPANESE

The Japanese build their gardens for all seasons. Part of the purpose of a garden is to reflect the time of year in the scene laid out to view. A view that seems static in itself, unchanging from year to year; but it changes from season to season. In winter the harmony between the various basic elements of stone, evergreen shrubs and trees and water is most obvious. The balance is not formal but is derived from the almost inimitable feel that the true master Japanese garden designer has for these elements and the unique way they should go together in any one particular place. The important thing is that the water is an inseparable part of the whole view.

BACK TO NATURE

The whole view has to be applied to the natural looking landscape and many of the traditional styles of gardening too, and so where water is concerned the plants you would expect to see near the water are the plants that would most appreciate that situation. For these sorts of garden we are looking for effects that carry us through to the spectacle of later on in the New Year. Many of them would be lost at a more dazzling time of year, but they are appreciated more for their singular performance when every other plant and flower seems to be recuperating or closed shop from the severe elements.  Phormiums and Berginia doing the job of softening the formality of the water garden at Barnsley House in winter)

For Autumnal effects amongst British indigenous shrubs: the guelder rose (Viburnum opulus)  will love a poolside situation and light up the gloom with fine scarlet display of leaves and red fruit. The Wayfaring tree,  another Viburnum. (V. lantana) can come up with various shades from copper to blue.

Japanese maples or acers love being near water, they seem to adore their own reflection and reward you constantly for your thoughtfulness in putting them there. In autumn all acers produce amazing colours, not all the same colour and in the case of Acer griseum, the paper bark maple, or A. pennsylvanicum, the snake bark maple, reveal astounding and distinctive bark.

Liquidambers like it moist but well drained and if they really like their situation in autumn they produce the closest thing in vegetation to a firework display.

The Dogwoods (Cornus sanguinea) The very similar C. sericea really come into their own in winter. There is an Autumnal display of dark red leaves and shiny black berries but in the really bare winter months they stand with their fresh new bark aflame in reds, yellows and greens. There is nothing more enchanting than a poolside backdrop of Cornus lit by a winter sunset against a stormy sky multiplied by its reflection in the pond.

The Silver Birch (Betula pendula) likes the poolside, although if you have a small to medium sized garden, a cultivar that performs more in scale with the setting might be more appropriate. B. p. Youngii is a small very weeping small tree, perhaps too weeping for some tastes. B. p. Tristis is  a compromise in that it is not quite so flaccid, but my favourite is B. p. Dalecarlica, the Swedish Silver Birch, with its cut leaves, white bark and delicate weeping stems. It is a tall and elegant addition to any pool backdrop in any number, but grouped in threes.

For true winter flowers in the backdrop there are the beautiful Witch Hazels (Hamamelis in several species), more Viburnums (V. fragrans, V. bodnantense, V. tinus), the bush Honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrans), the Mahonias (M. Charity is particularly splendid). These winter flowering shrubs are partly renowned for their fragrance but none more so than the daphnes (D. mezereum and D. odora). Insignificant in flower but evident from their fragrance and evergreen leaves is the small Sweet box or Christmas Box (Sarcoccoca confusa), also the large Eleagnus x ebbingeii.

For bold colour in the leaves throughout the harshest months, the evergreen Euonymus, the variegated privet (Ligustrum ovaliu ‘Aureum’) and the sword leaved Phormiums in variegations of reds, yellows or both.

Down on the ground for perennials next to the pond you can use that persistent and reliable ground cover the Elephant Ears (Bergenia), coming in lucent maroons, through pink to white. The Helleborus, the Christmas rose, the black Hellebore and the Lenten rose provide opportunistic foliage that carpets areas shady in summer  areas. The spotty leaves of lungwort (Pulmonaria saccharata) make a show before the blue to pink flowers. These can fight it out with the primula that will form golden mounds in early spring, or drumsticks of blue wherever you choose. In areas where thick leafy ground cover is needed over damp areas, the rampant winter heliotrope (Petasites fragrans) sends up sweet almond scented flowers before the leaves in February. Most at home streamside, the Japanese cousins (Petasites japonicus and p.  j. giganticus) have larger more dramatic leaves and flowers.

 

But for those of you lucky enough to have the soil in which they will flourish and protection from the rising sun, look no further than the camellias. What more can you ask? Especially when you can complement them with early rhododendrons. In January there is Rhododendron mucronulatum, R. dauricum and R. parvifolium. These are followed by R. Praecox in February, and so it goes on.

Don’t forget the bulbs and corms for the clarion of the late winter wakeup announcement. Crocus can see you out at the end of the autumn with only a months gap until they start again in early in the new year. But winter aconites and the snowdrops and Narcissi can bear the brunt of any harsh conditions more effectively.  Cyclamen too, light up the dark under shrubs and trees. In a nice protected south-facing rockery the little Iris unguicularis makes a surprising display.  The colchicums commonly known as ‘autumn crocus’ or ‘meadow saffron’, are in a separate family from crocus and have many different forms. One in particular for the water gardener that is almost a symbolic farewell to the water garden for that year is the beautiful large mauve double flowered Colchicum speciosum ‘Waterlily’.

CHECK LIST FOR AUTUMN POND MAINTENANCE:

• Remove fallen leaves. Net pond and stream.

• Remove tender aquatics.

• Clean pumps and raise them up to the marginal shelf level so they only circulate surface water.

• Only feed fish low protein food below water temperatures10°C down to 7°C. Stop feed altogether at 7°C.

• Maintain a hole in any ice that forms on the surface for more than 3 days.

• Cleanout any filtration system once the temperature approaches freezing and close it down.

• Keep the pool topped up especially in areas where there is a high water table. Treat any fresh water with ‘pool conditioning’ chemicals.