Regular Clearing of the Lake Needed
Posted: 30 January 2022
It's now near the end of the month and from time to time I have been taking photos of floating debris found in the lake that accumulates behind the house. The first image was taken on Sunday 16 January and shows a large quantity of chopped lily leaf left uncollected from the time the lake was dredged over the last two weeks of November.
The next image, taken on the following Wednesday shows how the wind has now gathered it together. It's difficult to see unless you zoom in on the image that now only does it contain a lot of chopped lily leaf but a number of lily root fragments as well.
With a change in wind direction, by the following morning, the debris was, once again, scattered over a large area of the lake.<.p>
Over the latter part of the month Diana and I had spent a good number of hours dragging as much of the debris out of the lake as we could, but with only a garden rake to play with its a long job and you trample all the plants on the bank when the muck is not reachable from the decking.
The final photograph was taken today and shows a well compacted pile of twigs, lily leaf and root and other vegetation that was floating in the lake immediately behind the house. The total time for the work today was around three hours. There is still masses of this kind of flotsam in the lake and, no doubt, in due course it will all find its way to the rear of Ruston House and need to be removed.
Perhaps one question still to be resolved is how long will the remains of lilies continue to be found. The answer will be used to determine exactly what level of regular lake maintenance will be needed throughout the coming year.
