What about an arbor with a roof on it?

How about on your deck? Kirk has a really cool barrel pond near his porch...and I have one off my patio...of course, "stuff" gets in it & any water feature takes "care" (unfortunately!) Good luck! Jeanne S.

Here's my barrel pond a couple days ago:
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And here's a full view cause the 2nd barrel pond is buried:
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Did you notice the "frogs" in the lower part of that pic? Here they are...Mr. Leopard Frog was posing with my GJ frog...LOL!

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Good luck, TMG! Jeanne S.

you know, down at the Indian Reservation, in the valley...there's a fish hatchery...actually a salmon hatchery, through dept of fish and game..
over the cement water beds, they have to protect the little fingerlings...
so, they have a netting over the whole large area.
it's more like mosquito netting but seems a bit more heavy, so therefore is easier to see everything going on..
birds would swoop down and eat them, so if you want, I can do a bit more checking into it, to find out just what kind of netting protection they use.

What if you determine exctly wehre you want it, and then build a netting structure far enough away from it like a canopy/tent that had an entrance door and then build your pond in there. You could determine the exact type of netting, probably a fine mesh-but something that you can see through from a distance too. I'm thinking umbrella-ish and large enough like a pergola. I'm just trying to think outside of the trees. I don't deal too much with trees but think your shade is pretty nifty (hot desert summer temps make me tree envious). Also if you are goign to put water plants in there think of ones that like shade. Mine are in full sun so I have no problem. I have 3 bucket ponds (2 no pumps) and one stock tank (110 gallon) metal one with a 24/7/365 running pump and gambusia affinis (mosquito fish). A set above ground tank would help since you don't need to set something in the ground amongst the root system of all the trees (and it's easier on the back and knees to clean). I just hate to see a gal that is yearning for a pond and not be able to fulfill her dream of it!
Hang in there and hope all of us spark some great ideas for you to find a solution.
Love, Jules

OMG ---I'm in AWE of your ideas ! Here I was thinking I could never do it -- but -- it's do-able !!!

Oh---I'm full of excitement now ......

*****HAND ME MY TOOL BELT .... I'm going in ..........*****

ROFL .....

(I can't help but love you all for the help !)

I had to put up bird netting for my vegetable garden (a little blackbird loved my young tomato plants for his nest). I bought a roll of what Home Depot called "deer netting". It's black and very fine. When you put it up, you can barely see it.

Here is a picture of it tented over one of my beds:
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I think if you had a pond of some sort, you could probably screen it over the top and no one would even see it.

This is a garden junk forum so I wonder what an old patio or golf umbrella would look like over a water feature? You might need to extend or shorten it somehow. Or maybe find the ribs of an umbrella and add your own personal touches?

I tried to get my warped mind around this problem and that is all I could come up with. Sorry I work nights and I'm tired, maybe I can come up with a better idea after a days sleep, lol.

How about going pondless?

This one is from Costco, but you can do thousands of variations with your own stuff. The rocks hide a screen. If you get leaves in the rocks, just turn it off and run the leaf blower over it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pondless

I'm' coming back to this site after a long time away....it's been fun to read all the postings, and still recognizing a lot of names.

Here's a link to my solution to the leaf/debris problem - maybe it will help you...This is a fairly small fountain, but I like it...

Here is a link that might be useful: flickr photo

I dont have pictures of one I did a long time ago. I'll try to describe it as best as possible. I took a bucket and dug a hole big enough for it to fit in. Put the bucket in and added the pump and water. Used a round grill rack to cover it, used a piece of old waterbed matress for the cover, cut a hole in the center for the tube, added rocks around to cover the rubber. Toads and birds loved it. Hope you can understand that.

One other thing, make sure you can get the bucket back out of the hole.. Mine is still in the ground buried :)

So you go and get Blue Starmom's dog kennel and put on a slanted roof of corrugated fiberglass or pvc panels (comes in various colors). Could make it higher if necessary.

Also could build a slanted roof over a pond like they do over picnic tables at campsites.

I think the wet leaves and flowers would be too heavy for netting.

Betty