Pond plant management

elm74

Hi, and sorry if this is a silly question!
I made a wildlife pond last summer, which now has newts, frogs and dragonfly larvae living in it 😊.
The bunches of elodea and hornwort I put in last year have really taken off this summer and I'm just wondering if I need to thin them both out, or if it's more beneficial for frogs and newts to have denser cover rather than open areas of water?
Thanks

Pete.8

My pond looks similar and I gave the elodea (although I think mine has a different name as elodea is highly invasive and I think is no longer available) a hard pruning by just snapping bits off as far down as I could reach. Pulling them up makes a mess of the pond, so I just snapped lots off and put it on the compost heap. The plants will grow back in no time and probably need further pruning in a few weeks.
I found the hornwort is much better behaved and i didn't need to pull any out, but if yours is rampant you can treat it in the same way.

Dovefromabove

We do the same as @Pete.8 does. 

elm74

Thank you both. I prefer the hornwort, so might remove the elodea altogether.
I did try pulling a bit up recently (for a frog who decided to live in a bucket!) and it did make a mess, so will try breaking it next time. Thank you.

Posy

We do the same, but leave the plants at the edge of the pond for a few hours to allow anything living in it to go home.

elm74

Yes, will do that. Thanks.

Creannaphone

I have used a company called Liconshire Pond Plants and they will send you a brilliant catalogue with really helpful advice as to what and where you can use different plants.  I hope this helps as for myself there are  no specific outlets to choose from and the catalogue is well worth a look.

elm74

Thanks, Creannaphone. I bought some of my plants from them, they're really good. I've got 5 varieties of floating/depth plants and 9 marginals at the shallow end, so it's stuffed full! 😂