I also have a pond that began to 'own us' almost from the get go. 2800 gallons. When I think of draining it, disposing of fish, and filling in I think of how much it cost to build and rebuild, maintain over several years and shudder. On the other hand it IS a tremendous amount of work and still costs for electricity (pumps in summer and pump and deicers in the winter) to say nothing of organic additives to keep pod as algae free as possible and healthy for my fish.
I volunteer at our botanical garden (Alaska Botanical Garden) and while I was nuts for peonies at first, and dahlias, I discovered alpine and rock gardens are fascinating. And yes, such variety. It would mean a huge amount of work to drain, pull the liner etc, fill with soil then figure out the top layers. I would use tufa troughs a good deal. We have cloudy weather but actually not that much rain (usually).
So I have this winter to decide. Pond is put to bed, fish are dormant, snow everywhere except on the pond. It will be a while before it is cold enough to freeze over except where we pump water from a height of 2' to keep some open surface which will also disappear as the ice builds. It will maintain a hole but a very small one 6" or so and up to 2' deep depending on the cold this winter.
