# Patio Pond Overwintering



## Turvey (6 Oct 2021)

What's everybody's ideas on patio pond plants overwintering? 

Project Cheapskate Patio Pond has been quite successful over the summer but it's now looking past its best. It's in a pretty exposed setting and will get battered by the wind up here, so I'm thinking I'll need to break it down for the winter. There's 2 baskets of plants and a couple of floating lily (I think) plants. Just lift them and leave them all in a bucket of water in the shed or outside in the shelter where they'll still get light?


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## Wolf6 (6 Oct 2021)

Cant you wrap the whole thing in plastic bubblewrap like you would a less hardy plant in the garden?


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## mort (6 Oct 2021)

I'd say it depends on the plants. If they are native species then a little shelter is all they really need but if you have tropical species then they would probably need to come indoors, with some supplemental light, to where the temperature stays warm enough for them to survive.


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## not called Bob (6 Oct 2021)

The smaller volume of water, the easier it is to freeze solid. So if moving to a bucket, then maybe in a porch or garage to reduce the exposure to cold


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## Turvey (6 Oct 2021)

Unfortunately with the wind we get up here and the exposed siting of the pond I fear that the bubble wrap wouldn't last too long. We've already lost a small plastic 'greenhouse' to the winds we got at the equinox! 

All native plants as far as I am aware so I'm thinking the bucket in the garage is the way to go 👍


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## dw1305 (6 Oct 2021)

Hi all, 


Turvey said:


> All native plants as far as I am aware


They will probably be all right just left. You might get issues if it freezes solid, but I'm going to guess that isn't particularly an issue for you with all that surrounding ocean. 

cheers Darrel


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## kammaroon (6 Oct 2021)

I'm keeping mine going outdoors but I live in London where it's slightly warmer. They were fine last winter, only a one week's period where a thin layer of ice developed on the surface.

I've watched a bunch of summer tubbing video by Rachel O'Leary and she takes plants out of the water, hacks off the stems and leaves, place them in black bin bags and leave them somewhere that will not freeze.


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## zozo (10 Oct 2021)

It highly depends on how severe the winter is... I did many years nothing special the last years winters weren't that harsh and all always survived. But 2020/21 winter was a bugger... It was pretty warm and above zero and a rather sunny winter till January 2021. Lots of plants still had a healthy sap stream running and even some subtropicals still green... Then all of a sudden, it went from a sunny +10°C and a day later -5°C and a day later again in a flash freeze a - 12°C during the day and even colder at night and a 250-litre tub was frozen solid in 24 hours time for about 10 days. And then the winter was over.

But these short but rather very cold 10 days killed 80% of all my bog plants even a few lilies didn't make it. If the tuber freezes solid it's over. 

Even some winter hardy garden plants got severely damaged, usually, they go dormant in a slow pase slowing down their sap stream while it slowly gets cooler over a period... But if this is still too active because it's relatively warm then a sudden flash freeze can be fatal.

Winter weather can be very unpredictable... You can take your chances, but do keep track of the weather forecasts and make sure you have the time to act soon if a sudden severe north-eastern cold front is about to arrive.


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## PARAGUAY (10 Oct 2021)

I think thats the killer bitter wind below freezing North East for some terrestial plants so maybe a protective fleece screen?could be the answer for a pond if they cant be moved


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