Want to know the funny part? there's only two plants in that picture that I take inside, the red leaved banana, and the little green leaved one to the left. The rest are either hardy hibiscus, reseeding annuals, or perennials. The large green bananas are musa basjoo, and I don't dig them, I chop and cover them with bags of leaves. I do get a new start of the chartreuse green sweet potato vine each year though. I'm a LAZY tropical gardener...

First of all, according to various people, you may want to reconsider keeping your catfish and pond fish together. I posted a link below - or you can do a search yourself on the subject. In our pond in Upstate NY (similar in zone to you), I remove all my tropical plants in early October. We cut back our hardy water lilies which are planted directly in the pond and drop to the bottom the other hardy plants. Our pond is 3 feet deep and approx. 3,000 gallons so the fish overwinter in the pond. I don't know what you should do with a pond that small. We purchased a plastic 100 gallon tub at Country Max for our tropical plants, and I think that would work well for your fish if you decide to bring them indoors. You would have to add a pump or air stone for aeration and something for filtration. My husband altered the "plug" with a faucet and we can drain it pretty easily with a garden hose into our basement sewer come spring. Here is a link that might be useful: catfish in a pond

Thanks again everyone for the very kind comments! As far as breaking the 11th commandment, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's pond, well, I'm very guilty of that one. It is all the pics on this site that I've examined with almost stalker-ish fanaticism that has given me so many ideas and inspiration! Okiee-I'm using a 20 watt Pondmaster UV light and a discontinued filter that I got for very, very cheap (the Hozelock trinamic). The filter is rated for ponds up to 3000 gallons with heavy koi loads. As my pond is only about 1200 gallons, I think it's doing its job of keeping the pond very clear! LOL I oversized the filter because I know that my pond is overstocked. Lisa - I am going to be adding a 500 gallon addition to the pond this fall to hopefully give the koi some extra breathing space to grow. But, I know that because of the small size of my pond - even with the addition - I will have to likely have to part with some of my koi eventually. A local cafe/pottery shop/artist's retreat has several ponds with koi. I might ask them if they want some of my koi if they outgrow the home I can give them. I'm also planning on hooking up with some other local water garden societies so I can meet people who may welcome some adopted koi. I just want to make sure they go to a good home someday. But, before I get ahead of myself, I probably should just try to get them through a Wisconsin winter!! LOL (see my post on overwintering koi under thick ice)

Enjoyed your pictures. Last week our pond was totally covered in snow, and this week, it is surrounded by mud! The temperatures have flucuated that much.