Did I mention pond plants?

Cut back your tropical pond plants now.  If you plan to overwinter them, bring them in the garage or the greenhouse.  Most of them will do fine if not frozen solid. If you have anacharis and your pond will freeze solid, bring it in too and put it in a washtub in the garage. (Garage getting crowded?)  Put your goldfish in there too if your pond is not below your frost line

Cut back your hardy plants as well. I cut mine back to about 3". The pond will look dreadful all winter, but the plants will come back green and healthy next spring when the plants put out new growth.

To make the fall pond into something besides a gray hole full of water, add some mums around the edge for fall color.  Put a few painted cinder blocks in the pond to raise decorations out of the water and put some Halloween decorations on top.  Or a few more pots of mums.

One way to overwinter a pond

Dear Jan,

I have successfully overwintered a "temporary" pond in an 18" deep, 8 foot diameter plastic kiddy pool (plants, fish and all) in a minus 40 (oops that's celsius, not sure in farenheit?) winter. (Because we were moving and I had to dismantle my larger pool before winter). I did this by dropping a stock tank heater (with a metal guard to ensure that the plastic edges didn't melt) into the pond. It keeps the water just above freezing and keeps a hole in the ice, even in the coldest weather. I didn't keep track of what it did to my electric bill because I knew I needed it, so the pond wouldn't freeze solid. Then I built a raised pool (it was three feet deep but most of it was above ground except for the deepest parts in the centre) and I continued to use the stock tank heater with a lot of success. Everything survived through the winter. I purchased the heater at the local farm supply store.

The only problem with this idea might be the cost of running the heaters, but it certainly is something to consider for next winter.