The biggest challenge for anyone with a backyard water garden is how to keep the water clean. Part of the purity that is a water pond is in how the plants and gold fish interact with each other. If the pond is clear and clean, its simple to look at the fish. Nevertheless, the biggest advantage is really for your pocketbook. Cleaner water results in a healthier pond.

Is there a more "natural" alternative instead of adding more filters and chemicals to your pond? There is and its been used successfully for several hundred years! Barley straw is the answer you've been looking for.

If you have never heard of barley straw before, no worries, neither had I until a few months ago. I was hosting a BBQ when my buddy, who has more of a green thumb than I ever will, suggested that I could make my pond more clear. My first instinct was to argue that my pond was clear. However, one look at it and I really had no argument. So he suggested using barley straw (he prefers lavender barley straw himself). As he said, "My pond has never been more clear, and my fish love it!".

It turns out that he has been using barley straw for a number of years now. He has no idea how it actually works, but there is something in it that helps clear the water of his pond. All he does is place a bale of the straw near his fountain, or other water feature, and it does the rest!

you'll want to pick up enough. The great advantage for me was that I didnt have to spend hours working on keeping it clean. I placed it under my waterfall and secured it with a couple of rocks. Then

A couple of days later, and I could not believe what I was seeing! While it wasn't 100% clear, it was certainly noticeable. That improvement was worth the cost of the barley straw alone. It had indeed worked. Is there some type of scientific reason why barley straw works at cleaning up a water pond? Probably, but I can't say for sure why it works, only that it does. The solution is so simple too. Add a new bale to the base of the moving water and let it go and do its thing. It couldn't be simpler.