Planting Grass up to Edge of a Garden Pond Creates Problems
Q ... I have lawn all the way up to the edge of my pond. My lawn suffers terrible weeds, which up to the time I built my pond, I would control with weed killer. However, now I don't want to use chemicals that might run off into the pond and hurt my Koi. What can I use as an alternative to control these unsightly weeds?
Trevor McNamara, via email
A ... Having grass right up to the edge of a pool is a very tempting design ploy. It can look clean and modern or as timeless as a capability brown landscape. Unfortunately the mat of grass works like a wick, both in and out. In the heat and dry, it sucks out water form the pool and in the wet it siphons in solution all the pollutants in the soil including weed killers and fertilisers.
Weeds in the surrounding turf to the pool can only be spot treated with glysophate weed killers like Roundup. This chemical is regarded as being completely harmless to wildlife and would do very little harm even if it were washed straight into the pond immediately after application. Small spot applicators can be purchased at all garden centres.
For larger areas there are Weep wipes, which can be purchased from professional garden suppliers and upmarket garden centres. They consist of a tube filled glysophate weed killer slowly feeding a wick held taught at the bottom end. This is brushed over the offending plants smearing them with the chemical.
The only other alternative is to cut back the turf and put in a solid row of bricks or edging stones. There is also a lawn edging for ponds