Ponds are lovely in the landscape, but no matter what a pond installer tells you, they will require maintenance. I love mine and can be captivated for hours watching the fish swim leisurely through the floating plants.

Yesterday I decided to divide up some enthusiastically overgrown plants around the biofilter and waterfall area. I know better, but I figured some plant roots were stuck in the filter media so I pried them loose with a garden fork.

Six hours later I wandered back to the pond to discover it was empty more than half way to the bottom. A leak is one of my persistent fears. Logic had it that I’d done something dumb up around the waterfall, so I turned off the pump that circulated the water up through the biofilter and waterfall and was relieved to find the level stopped descending  in the pond pool below. (The thought of having to drain the whole pond area with its huge, heavy potted waterlilies and myriad aquatic residents is seriously discouraging.)

Tearing apart the biofilter and waterfall area is no easy task since I built it all from scratch using no kits. And sure enough a closer inspection revealed that I brilliantly had punctured the plastic basin of the biofilter with my garden fork, causing all the water pumped up from the pond to drain away into the soil. I will try to patch the hole with silicon glue and a liner patch. Otherwise it means tearing out the whole tub and replacing the biofilter tank. All because I was thoughtless and sloppy.

Ponds can have parts wear out, damaged by people, animals or erosion. They do need care. Especially when the pond owner messes up. Although I spent too much time chastising myself for my stupidity, I am grateful that I discovered the problem before the pond drained out and I lost everything. I guess we are all human and make mistakes. The moral of the story seems to be, check on your pond regularly. Even a small mistake can have big consequences when you are creating a completely man-made ecology in a garden, out of its natural context. And even experts who have worked with ponds for years do make stupid mistakes.