Every year around this time, approximately four billion maple leaves fall in my yard, half of them managing to land in my pond, each the size of an elephant ear--a large elephant.
And each spring I must clean my pond, removing a foot of decomposed leaf sludge from the bottom.
So this year I decided to get a pond screen. The pond shop didn't carry them, but the helpful store assistant suggested I make one myself. "They're easy to make," he said.
Easy to make. He was probably thinking of someone mechanically inclined like my father or my nephew Ryan; he probably wasn't thinking of someone like me who isn't always sure which end of a hammer to use.
So I took his advice and asked Ryan to design and construct a pond cover, netting on top so the pond can "breathe," plastic on the sides so the leaves can slide off.
I'm pleased with the result. My pond is now protected from the annual leaf assault. Once the leaves are all down for this year, we'll dismantle and store the cover until next fall.
For now, I happily sit back and watch the large maple leaves happily fall where they may.
[First posted: November 5, 2015]
