Claremont Landscape Garden, National Trust
Claremont is a beautiful garden surrounding a small lake and featuring an unusual grass amphitheatre. The garden's creation and development has involved great names in garden history, including Sir John Vanbrugh, Charles Bridgeman, William Kent and 'Capability' Brown. In 1726 it was described as 'the noblest of any in Europe' and the garden today is of national importance. The lake is the focal point of the whole garden with its island and pavilion, grotto, viewpoints and vistas. Unfortunately in the era in which the lake was constructed, it was the fashion to have very neat banks, with the lawn right to the edge of the lake and little marginal vegetation. The lake also contained a large number of big carp. From an aesthetics view this may have seemed a good idea at the time, but as a result Claremont soon became dominated by algae.
Being the focal point of the garden and continuously in the public eye, it was important that Claremont had clear water. To achieve this, firstly all of the carp had to go. Large numbers of carp unfortunately are often the catalysts of many water clarity problems. Unknowingly they churn up the sediment looking for food, destroying any vegetation that might be present and increasing the turbidity of the water. This stops the growth of any aquatic vegetation which is in direct competition for nutrients with the algae, it also reduces the habitat for invertebrates which feed on the algae, resulting in frequent algal blooms.
In addition to this the algae (blanket weed) was to be removed to make an instant impression. For environmental reasons Aquamaintain do not employ the use of algaecides and herbicides to treat unwanted aquatic plants. Instead we prefer to remove algae and unwanted weeds by hand if possible or harness natural processes which rely on self repair and adaption to treat problems with a lasting effect.
