The optimal amount of plant cover in a pond during the summer is considered somewhere between 60 and 85% of the water volume. However improving the health of a pond is not a matter of planting more plants but of maintaining the right conditions for natural plant growth to thrive. It is the plants that attract animal life and create favourable conditions for it. The most important single factor contributing to a pond’s health is an abundance of varied plant cover, both underwater and growing out of it, but particularly under water. The primary indicator of pond health is an abundance of underwater vegetation composed of several different plant species. These changes will inevitably lead to a reduction in the wildlife – both in terms of population size and diversity of species. Water can become murky or smell foul, become shaded by surrounding trees or shrubs, or get taken over by invasive emergent vegetation, which effectively dries out the open water. The condition or health of a pond can be affected by a number of factors. Ponds in different situations vary enormously in the wildlife they support and even weather conditions can affect the dominance of certain pond plants in a given year, and therefore its appearance and associated wildlife. But before you set about attempting to restore a pond to its natural state and allow it to become a refuge for wildlife, it is vital to establish what factors are affecting it. Managed in the right way, a pond will quickly respond. Despite their abundance in the county, up to 70% of Suffolk’s 22,000 ponds are neglected or abandoned. When the environmental conditions are right, an array of different plant species grow in abundance, creating a spectrum of aquatic zones in which a myriad of different creatures manage to find the right kinds of spaces to flourish. A Suffolk pond in good health is an incredibly rich and varied habitat for wildlife.

Growing plants in dredged up pond muck