I was thinking about this when I was driving around the countryside today and at the number of ponds nearby I thought if all of the stuff that accumulates in ponds is not harmful to compost piles it would be not only a good source of nitrogen but also moisture for the piles of leaves and cardboard. Not to mention I bet some people would even be willing to pay for the removal. Which is the tenant of permaculture right? Knocking out 2-3 birds with one stone? My only question for you is; what would be the negatives, the things I'm not thinking of?

Take this with a grain of salt cuz I am not sure if it would be a real problem, but I would wonder if any pesticides , fertilizers or other polutants that are carried to the ponds by runoff would end up in the aquatic plants and then end up on your garden ?

Maybe someone with more knowledge will chime in on that.

Any relatively active compost process is an excellent way to break down most organic chemicals, including pesticides. I think the bigger challenge would be how to gather together enough of the stuff to provide a worthwhile volume. I'm thinking of algae. Other aggressive water plants are a lot more bulky and might be easier to gather....

Alder Burns wrote:Any relatively active compost process is an excellent way to break down most organic chemicals, including pesticides. I think the bigger challenge would be how to gather together enough of the stuff to provide a worthwhile volume. I'm thinking of algae. Other aggressive water plants are a lot more bulky and might be easier to gather....

I think one average to smaller pond would produce quite a bit. Think about any time you've been fishing and gotten snagged, how heavy it is to pull up a mess and hope your bait is still there after getting the mess off the hook.

as long as it was a really well-managed hot compost pile, you shouldn't have any problems with the few water-borne pathogens (pseudomonas comes to mind). overall, sounds like a great plan!