The Duckweed

Thought I had better start with some duckweed. We have a small half acre pond in front of our house which we fish from once or twice a year but mostly we put it there for swimming. With no air conditioning and lots of sweaty garden work in the summer, a dip in the pond can do wonders. Plus we have a lot of bullfrogs calling at night - a very soothing way to fall asleep -- basking turtles, some ducks in spring and on and on. The wonders that water bring to a landscape! But then came the duckweed. I bought some water lilies thinking that a patch of them in the shallows by the dam would be really pretty. And then there was duckweed! We've tried lots of natural controls from raking it out to put on the compost pile to a special bacteria culture that is supposed to devour everything green but it is perversely hard to eradicate. It's only benefit is that it out competes algae and as you can see, the wind sometimes blows it into interesting patterns. (I wonder if I can use it like a crystal ball and for tell the future?) We don't want to bring any strong herbicide into environment - frogs are notoriously susceptible and then our cats and dogs and other wildlife drink out of the pond. So the battle goes on!