Silted up wildlife pond

[Kayleigh]

Well you would expect it after 3 years....

What is the best way to go about removing silt and old leaves from the bottom of my wildlife pond...
I will have newt efts soon but I am worried in case they don't leave the pond and I scoop them out with the silt.
Will the efts crawl back into the pond if the silt is left to one side for a few days.
I will not touch it until Oct or Nov..

Thanks

Elaine

ps

I have just took some pics to give an idea..

[Hedge Witch]

How big is your pond, Kayleigh? I'm just trying to get a mental picture.

[Dogghound]

I would probrably do mine in late summer early autumn to avaid to much disturbance, put it on the edge of the pond so that anything in it can crawl back into the water.

[Kayleigh]

The pond is 10ft long by 2ft wide..But in summer the water level drops to below the Irises making the actual pond 6ft x 2ft.
Its all overgrown as there was mesh over the top to keep the dog off which made maintenance impossible.
Here are the pics..It looks a mess but the newts, frogs and toads don't complain.

[tom00_uk]

now is not the time to being doing this

wait until after summer when the water is a bit cooler and holding more oxygen as disturbing the silt will reduce the levels

i use a sieve designed for wine making and very slowly dredge the bottom and then pile seed mud etc onto a seed try at the side

this allows the mud etc to slowly dry out and time ofr any organisums that will make it back time to do so, then onto the veg patch or compost heap to feed the garden

i find pond vacs use a lot of water and so on top of the shock of stiring up the silt you have to do a water change to refill the pond

best tip is in winter to remove leaves etc as often as you can and then you will not have to reove silt for many years

leave some behind as it is needed by many critters and will keep the diversity up

[Kayleigh]

Thanks for the tips I intend to wait till the frogs newts and toads have left then get stuck in I put some aquatic compost in the bottom so will just do a bit of tidying up not a revamp..it is a wildlife pond after all..