Pick the Fights You Know You Can Win

I have a new battle. Duckweed!I didn't feel I could win this war in the past. Duckweed had taken a firm hold on the pond, to the point that we had to skim holes in the solid blanket of green to peek into the water. It was our own fault. A little bit of duckweed had come in with some purchased pond plants and the pond was infected. I didn't scoop each and every little bit out when I had the chance, not realising how invasive this stuff is. It got a solid footing in our pond. It wasn't until The Man of the Place changed the pond liner earlier in the spring that I thought I had even a small hope of keeping this stuff out of our pond.

When reintroducing things back to the pond after the new liner was put in place, we wiped away all visible signs of duckweed. It still appeared. Tenacious stuff, duckweed! As I have plenty of time to keep an eye on developments in the pond, I am removing each and every little bit I see. This used to be a good kitchen sieve. I found it, crushed on the ground near the pond near the time of the big liner replacement. Being downgraded from kitchen utensil to pond sieve, it now lives on a rock at the edge of our pond. I use it to scoop floating duckweed out of the water. Every day and sometimes more than once a day, the pond is scanned for signs of duckweed. I swoop down and remove the evil green floaters as soon as they are spotted. It rained yesterday for the first time in a while. I knew that this meant there was a strong possibility that some new duckweed would be visible. Duckweed will grow between rocks and float free once the water levels rise. I scooped out about 15 little bits while still in my pajamas. I figure that by the end of the summer, I will have removed all threat of duckweed. Constant vigilance!!!In the future, any items coming from an outside source will have to be quarantined in a bucket for a number of days ensuring my duckweed free pond is not reinfected.

---------------A rosebush on the front of our house comes from my husband's childhood home. A cutting was taken from that house when they moved to a new place back in the early 70's. Decades later when The Man of the Place and I moved to Whitelees, my mother-in-law layered a portion of the same rosebush for us. We now have this vigorous climber by the door with a beautiful show of delicate pink roses at the end of June. It always is in bloom on his sister's birthday so in our family this rose is named Victoria's Rose. This year is no exception.