Ponds

I don't know how hard you work at keeping your ponds clean but I actually remove the water lillies and other plants that I overwinter in the pond each Spring. I do this so that I can divide, repot, add more soil and fertilise the plants. And the first few times I did this, I had to drain a significant amount of water out of the pond so that I could reach down to grab the containers. "This is nuts" I thought, what could I do to make the job easier.

As a wine drinker, I have a good supply of corks that I could fasten to something that would make it easire for me to pull the containers up to where I could grab them. So I got some whipper snipper cord (won't deteriorate in the water) that I attached to the container (3 strands). I made the pieces long enough so that the cork I attached to the other end of the linked pieces would float on the surface of the pond. Ugly looking you say! Not so says I if you have 2/3rds of your pond covered with foliage. The corks are hidden and just sit there waiting for next Spring when it is time to clean up again.