De-Mossing the Pond

Now that I live on a pond I find myself checking out other people's ponds when I pass them while driving.  I have seen ponds that are completely covered in green muck otherwise known as moss and ponds that are muck free.  Our pond falls in the middle.

We have solicited much information on pond management from other owners, fisherman and those in the business of pond management on how to control the moss.  Last year, we first followed the word of the experts and died our pond so light could not filter through the water and encourage plant growth.  That didn't work for us so then we took the suggestion of other pond owners and sprayed the moss from the top of the water.  That seemed to work much better last year than this year.  We have even considered getting a pond aeration system (either a windmill or an electric one) but there is no guarantee that that would help with the moss and it is expensive.  So this past weekend we reverted to the manual method.  The four of us - Mike, Laura, Emily and myself - put on swimsuits and pulled the moss and underwater grass by hand.

Mike and Laura begin scooping moss off the pond over by the dock.  

Blackie is on the deck overseeing the process.
As Mike continued the cleaning process, he stopped to pull dead cattails
which also improved the appearance of the pond.  

Where is Emily?  I thought she was helping with this procedure?

Can you find Emily in this picture?
And what is she doing?

The final results.

One corner of the pond much improved.
Now we can feed the catfish and see them while we are doing it.