This unfortunately promptly seemed to spring a leak and (whilst waiting to rebuild it) I installed a second much smaller pond nearby. The original pond has now been replaced and is fine.

The good news is that frogs have moved in to both ponds (no idea from where). The bad news is that my wildlife pond supplier could not supply the oxygenating plants until May and, in my eagerness to get things going this Spring, I bought a few (unlabelled but supposedly safe) plants from my local gardening centre which I have since discovered included canadian pondweed and what I now know to be some sort of duckweed.

I have replaced the Canadian pondweed with hornwort and various other natives now, but cannot get rid of the duckweed which breaks into tiny pieaces and comes back whatever I do

Is duckweed really that bad - one or teo people seems to thing that tadpoles eat it ?

Any advice would be appreciated

try this link, as it may help you find ways of living with the benefits of duckweed!

all the best for your wildlife pond, it is amazing what will find its way there!

Hopefully not a grassnake, but then again, wildlife gardening does mean mean one can actually control what flora and fauna live there--just give a helping hand.

Chip

Someone once suggested flooding the pond as being the only solution. Haven't tried it myself, but I do keep on top of mine with a constant battle.