Coming from zone 5, having lived in zone 3-4 for 11 years, and lived
in zone 7 (I think) I can tell you that the shorter your summers, the
MORE you need a pond. But not just any pond, you need one inside at
minimum a wind barrier, better yet one inside a greenhouse of some
sort. greenhouses DO NOT need to be glass or "hardware", they can be
plastic or even made of ripstop nylon on the sides as long as the top
is plastic to let in the sun.

I put a plastic cover over my pond, drop in a tank heater and my fish
are active nearly all winter even tho my pond is partially above
ground. Most months the temp is above 50 and I feed lightly.

I am now in the process of constructing an outdoor room around the
pond so we can enjoy sitting out there all year long. A big part of
my design is a cheap ceiling mounted combo halogen light and quartz
heater. It is infrared which means where I am sitting can be warmed
nicely without heating the whole thing.

Ingrid

On Sun, 20 May 2007 10:38:27 CST, wrote:
I'm still dreaming about a pond but the summer season's really too
short to make it practical here.
d.