The Dangers of Cattails

Before

After

To me there is something nostalgic about cattails, childhood memories of gathering a bouquet of cattails, waiting for them to burst then blowing their feathery seeds through the air.

Perhaps it was this nostalgia that drew my sister beyond reason to add cattails to her little pond. My husband told her not to do it. Yet, she could not resist their allure. I finally conceded that if she would thin them each year, she would probably be safe.

The first year after installing the pond, I returned to California to help her with the thinning. After only one year, it was a huge job. Still she refused to remove them completely from her pond. I admit they were beautiful.

I then did not go back to California for three years (or has it been four?). She had not thinned the cattails as promised; after all remember it was a huge job for the two of us. She had merely pruned them. This pruning did nothing to slow the growth of the root ball. This root ball had completely consumed her entire pond.

I had timed my trip this year to catch another sister in her final week in California. She is not the outdoor gardening type. So, as my sister and I struggled with the pond, she enjoyed some quiet time alone in the house. At least that’s what she thought she would do.

I discovered that if I wedged the handle of the shovel under this huge root ball, it could be lifted in its entirety. Maybe if we just had one more back and one more set of hands we could get that thing out of the pond.

Now I ask you, picture if you will one 50 plus and two 60 plus, big reared, old women battling a big ball of roots that must have weighed no less than 400 pounds. Are you smiling yet? Had you been a fly on the fence, you would have been rolling with laughter.

We fought with that root ball for hours. Even when we got it outside the pond, it caused one of my sisters to fall and injure her finger. It popped so loudly, I thought she had bumped into a pair of rocks and caused them to make that sound. Fearing the finger was broken, we got her ring off immediately. Though it was obvious by the next morning that her finger wasn’t broken, we would have had to make a trip to the emergency room to have the ring cut off had we not gotten it off when we did.

In just three or four years, one little stand of cattails can completely cover a 5x5 pond. The moral of this story is, don’t put cattails in your pond unless you don’t want to have a pond anymore.

Once the monster was removed from the pond, it was no surprise to find there were no fish left in the pond. We made a trip to OSH for a few supplies; pots for new plants, de-chlorinator, that sort of thing. After three days, we went to the pet store for some conditioning fish. We bought a dozen minnows and 13 goldfish. Until last week’s heat wave hit she had lost only one goldfish. She informed me last week that she lost four of the minnows to the heat.

I had hoped to add a new water feature to her yard on this trip. I had visions of sand and surf, combining a new water garden with a surrounding floral garden. Time and energy would not allow for that. However, we did add a new fountain to her patio and bought all new patio furniture and accessories. The prints on her new cushions are very reminiscent of the ‘60s. Cushions, a much safer place to put your nostalgia.

Now for the water loss update I promised. I spent an entire week checking different areas in my ponds to zero in on the problem. As I told you before, I was losing water at the mouth of the river. That was simply caused by settling (and probably a bit of the “short-cutting” across that area). The bigger and more elusive problem, turned out to be a split in a joint in the liner in the waterfall. I replaced that area of liner with new liner and the problem was quickly resolved. When you have an issue with water loss, nine out of ten times, that issue is going to be in the waterfall.

I found the leak on Friday and refilled my pond for the last time Friday evening. It was just in the nick of time. The water had all day Saturday to warm and the fish began spawning on Sunday. More on spawning next time!

Losing Water

I know I promised to report on my trip to California when I returned. However, I returned to an issue with my own pond. I am losing water. I know that 99% of the time, water loss is caused by problems in waterfalls or other connecting areas. Very often, a liner in a waterfall is exposed to more sunlight and becomes brittle. Another issue with waterfalls can be settling that allows the liner to slip to a lower level in one or more places. I have a lot of plants growing in my waterfall and sometimes roots can also push edges of the liner down, allowing water to escape.

My pond is actually two ponds joined by a small river. So I have three waterfalls. I have my original small 3x5 pond that started this addiction and an 8x12 pond that we added later. The large pond holds the pump. There are two hoses going from the pump to the large waterfall. One hose goes directly into the fall and the other goes into the bio-filter. The bio-filter is also equipped with an overflow hose that also goes into the waterfall.

The pump also has a hose that runs to the waterfall of the small pond, so all the water is circulated together. The water drains from the small pond into the river, leading to another small waterfall the pours back into the large pond.

I have been losing about 20 inches of water a day. In a 3x5 pond four inches can be considered a large loss. Add to that the second pond and a stream and twenty inches of water is massive.

Earlier in the season, I checked the liner of my large waterfall for settling and readjusted it as needed. The liner was still pliable and in good repair…so I thought.

We have had so much rain; the ground was too wet to find any standing water that might be leaking from the pond. We’ve had a couple of dry days now and I began testing this morning.

My first step was to turn off the valves going into the large waterfall. I waited two hours and checked the water level. I had already lost about two inches of water. I knew the small waterfall was not the issue. I looked for overflow on it as soon as I returned and found I had a problem (that liner is brittle and needs replacing). That was the easiest job since there is no filtration system up there.

An inch of water per hour is an incredible loss. There are screens on the drains from the small pond into the river. They have stopped up before with algae or debris that falls into the pond and caused an overflow. That wasn’t the problem this time.

I moved the rocks along the river edge, where the liner meets the drains of the small pond. I raised the liner a bit and immediately discovered water under the river’s liner.

The mouth of the river is very small. The dogs, kids and even the guys often use it for a “short-cut”. However, it’s very rocky there and stumbling often occurs. There could be a leak around the drainpipe itself or it is possible the dirt under the liner at the very top has settled allowing water to backwash and run underneath.

For now, I don’t want to assume that is my only problem. I have had my ponds for several years now so it is possible that there are other issues. I have turned off the valve to the small waterfall and I will monitor the water level with only the large waterfall running. I have tested the hose going directly into the large waterfall and found no leaks there. Hopefully, I won’t find any problems with the bio-filter either. So far, it has been a little over an hour since I last refilled the pond and proper water level has maintained.

If it turns out that my only issue is the mouth of the river, I will need to allow some drying time. If the drain itself is leaking, I’ll need to drain some water out of the small pond and let the area dry. Then I will have to put new glue around the drainpipe. If I find settling of the liner, it will simply be a matter of pushing a little bit of dirt back under the liner above the drain to raise it back above the waterline of the drain.

I will continue to keep you informed. Next time I will give you an update and tell you all about the dangers of cattails, or maybe I should call it, “the lessons learned in California”.