Harrogate water and wildlife
Pond Treatment and Pond Maintenance in Harrogate
Pond treatment, clearing and blanketweed control across Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon and Nidderdale. Wildlife safe methods throughout, from an owner who is an ecological risk assessor with 28 years behind her.
- 28 yearsGardening since 1998
- NPTCApproved and DBS checked
- BS 3998Tree work standard
- 4.5 from 19Rated on Google
What we do
Clear the water without emptying the life out of it
Pond treatment in Harrogate, done so the water clears and the wildlife stays. A Harrogate pond is usually a lined garden pond or a formal water feature sitting under mature trees, and that is the whole story of why it goes green. Leaf fall from limes, beech and sycamore drops into it every autumn, rots down into a silt bed over the winter and feeds the algae the following June. There is often no vehicle access either, so the silt comes out by barrow through a side gate rather than by pump into a trailer. Blanketweed and duckweed control, silt and leaf litter removal, planting up and seasonal upkeep, on garden ponds, wildlife ponds and formal water features.
Out through Knaresborough, Ripon and up into Nidderdale the ponds get bigger and more natural: wildlife ponds, stream-fed pools and field ponds taking run-off from grazing or from a fed lawn, where the nutrient load arrives from the catchment rather than from the trees. Nature takes priority on every pond we touch, in town and out of it. That is how Karen has always worked, and she is an ecological risk assessor as well as a horticulturalist with 28 years at this, established 1998.
Most people ring us in June. The pond that looked fine in April is now a green mat you cannot see a fish through, the lilies are being smothered and the smell is starting. Blanketweed is a filamentous algae and it is doing exactly what it is meant to: feeding on the nutrients in the water and the sunlight hitting the surface. Those nutrients almost always come from three places, which are leaf litter and silt rotting on the bottom, fish food going in faster than the fish eat it, and run-off from a fed lawn or a leaking overflow. Hit the weed with a heavy dose of something and it dies, sinks, rots, feeds the next bloom and crashes the oxygen on the way. Which is why we do not start there.
On the day
Getting the water clear again
What we actually do. Lift the weed out by hand or on a twisted rake so the nutrients physically leave the pond. Take out the sludge and rotted leaves that have built up in the base. Get the balance right with oxygenating plants and surface cover. Only then look at treatment. Everything we pull out is left on the bankside for a day so frogs, newts, dragonfly larvae and everything else living in it can crawl back to the water, and a pond with life in it is never drained flat in one go.
After the clear out
Planting is most of the long term answer
Aim for enough floating leaf cover from water lilies to shade a decent share of the surface, oxygenators such as hornwort and water crowfoot in the body of the pond, and marginals like marsh marigold, water forget-me-not and yellow flag iris on the shelves. You can order water plants through us, so the pond ends up encouraging more wildlife rather than simply being sterilised. Shade, competition for nutrients and a proper planted margin do more for clarity in a Yorkshire garden than anything that comes in a bottle.
Yet again a fantastic service! Karen is an inspiration and my garden is looking fantastic. The tree surgeons are amazingly skilled. Cant recommend Hocus Crocus Gardens & Trees enough
Claire Pickering, Harrogate, North Yorkshire
Google review
Wildlife law, price and what comes next
The wildlife rules matter here, and plenty of contractors ignore them. Great crested newts are protected: it is an offence to capture, kill or disturb them, or to damage a pond they breed in, under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017. Frogs, toads and common newts are spawning and in the water right through spring. So the honest window for a full clear out is late summer into early autumn, once the amphibians are out and before the leaves come down, and we will tell you to wait rather than take the work at the wrong time of year. We hold full NPTC pesticide licences, and even so, treatment near water is tightly controlled and it is the last step here, never the first.
What it costs depends on the surface area and depth, how much silt is coming out, access for a barrow or a pump, whether there is a liner, pump or filter to inspect, whether fish have to be held while we work, and how the waste leaves the site. Jet washing is available for pond edging, stonework, hard surfaces and water features at the same visit, which is usually the sensible time to get it done. Karen comes and looks at the pond, and the quote is free and in writing.
Brendan B left a Google review saying: “Highly recommended. Karen and her team were extremely knowledgeable, professional and efficient. Stripped back our overgrown garden and provided invaluable advice. Can't recommend enough! Thanks!” Hocus Crocus is NPTC approved, fully insured, DBS checked and IOSH certified, and holds 4.5 stars from 19 Google reviews.
Ponds rarely stand on their own. Once the water is right the planting around it usually needs sorting too, which is garden design and planting work, and keeping it that way sits inside regular garden maintenance. We treat ponds across Harrogate, where most of them are lined garden ponds under trees, east into Knaresborough, and right along the Nidd valley, including Hampsthwaite and Birstwith, where the bigger dale gardens run down to a stream or a pond, and Summerbridge and Dacre Banks. The full patch is on our areas we cover page.
At the waterside
What pond treatment and maintenance covers
Blanketweed and duckweed
Filamentous algae and duckweed lifted out physically so the nutrients leave the pond, rather than killed off to rot on the bottom and feed the next bloom.
Silt and leaf clearance
Years of rotted leaf litter and sludge taken out of the base, which is where most green water problems actually begin.
Planting and oxygenators
Lilies for surface shade, hornwort and water crowfoot in the water, marsh marigold and flag iris on the margins. Water plants supplied to order.
Wildlife safe method
Weed left on the bankside overnight so newts, frogs and dragonfly larvae get back in, and no pond with life in it drained flat in a single go.
Pumps, liners and edges
Pumps and filters checked and cleared, liner and edge damage found and reported, and stonework jet washed back to clean at the same visit.
Seasonal pond upkeep
Netting and leaf removal in autumn, margins cut back in spring, and a summer check so the pond never gets away from you again.
Before and after
Clearing work we have finished
Karen's own photographs of a real pond clearing job, before and after.
Question not answered below? Call Karen on 07816 779 064.
Before you book
Pond questions we get asked
Why does my pond go green every summer?
Will clearing the pond harm the frogs and newts?
Do you use chemicals in ponds?
When is the best time to clear a pond out?
Can you look after the pond as part of regular visits?
Do you supply pond plants?
Where we work
Covering Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon and the whole of Nidderdale.
Karen is based near Knaresborough and works right across Harrogate and its villages, out to Knaresborough and Ripon, and up the whole of Nidderdale. Not on the list? Just ask.
- Harrogate
- Knaresborough
- Ripon
- Killinghall
- Hampsthwaite and Birstwith
- Boroughbridge
- Summerbridge and Dacre Banks
- Pateley Bridge
- Wetherby
Want the pond clear again this season?
Free site visit and a written quote, with no obligation. Call Karen on 07816 779 064 or email karen@hocuscrocus.com with a photo of the pond.