Hi
sounds like you want the pond mostly for plants?? If so most do require a lot of sun but there are some shade types as well as many tropical semi-aquatics but these wouldn't make it through winter .
As to the leaves that is a REAL headache lol Some people use nets over the pond Would be very effective where most of the leaves fall in one season. in my case i have several trees with different deciduous periods so a year around problem . I just mostly strain them out with a net.. You could go fro streams or pondless waterfalls and of course fountains as alternatives. ?? gary

I recently removed 3 mature trees mostly because of all the added work in the fall, the area was also over planted so will fill in quick with conifers. If you do a negative bog (not sure if I worded that correctly) it would make it easier to maintain.
If you put a pond in I suggest making sure you are easily able to reach all parts of it with a net.

Thanks very much for the replies. That's basically what I thought. There is no way I would ever remove one of my trees and I would have to net the pond for at least 3 months a year so I guess I have my answer.

We live on a wooded ravine, so tons of leaves in fall. We do have a skimmer. Surface area of koi pond is @10ft X 7ft. In the fall we net the pond using the inexpensive fine black netting sold as "bird netting" to catch falling leaves and vac them up several times. We tuck the netting under rocks along the border and one cannot even see the netting until very close to pond. The pond stays netted all winter, sometimes embedded in the ice. The netting is removed in the spring when water hyacinths cover enough of the pond to provide protection from heron. Sooo...we have our pond netted about 6.5 - 7 months, but but the netting does not distract from beauty of pond.
Our pond gets combination of (close to) full sun, part sun and part shade. I have grasses, ground cover, and hosta planted outside of pond and water hyacinth, perennial dealbata, and one other perennial similar to dealbata in water.

Fine bird netting does catch birds and snakes and probably other critters. The first couple of months that I installed it, two little birds got tangled and drowned and also a long snake got tangled and died. I removed that fine netting and use larger netting now but I don't have the nearly year round leaf problem that you have.
Have you thought of making a high roof over your pond? Min

I certainly have no problem dumping a skimmer as often as it takes and netting leaves. Part of my problem is that I am gone at least a week per month. Seriously, we are talking sometimes 5 months of leaf drop per year here. The people across the street have a pool and sometimes their basket fills up three times a day. The elms are already starting to fall enough to have to sweep daily (and it's still upper 90s here) and will continue that for the next 90 days) We get at least 6-8 weeks of leaf drop from the live oaks in the spring. Believe me, the maintenance is not an issue with me. It's the reality of if this is worth the cost for what I will get from it, especially with basically no sun on it.

Minâ¦..I'm not familiar with the high roof thing. What type of roof is that?

Oh I don't really know, but thinking a net up high on posts or even a permanent structure like a strong woven wire grid or perforated metal on metal posts. any of these would be gazebo-like, that you could blow the leaves off of, since your pond is in shade already. even maybe a 4-way peaked roof that leaves would slide off of.
Not sure where you are though- snow may be a problem. Min

I have had a pond in partial shade with both pine/fir needle/cone drop and fall leaf drop for over fifteen years now. I would not let leaves stop you UNLESS you think a pond should be as "clean" as an aquarium. Ponds have algae. Ponds have gunk on the bottom. Some people cannot deal with this and are constantly cleaning or worrying about it. I do not. It is a pond. I have a Japanese maple hanging right over the pond and a dogwood close. The evergreen needles and cones turn the water dark but I just don't worry about it. My plants grow fine though it isn't sunny enough for waterlilies and what fish survive herons and kingfishers also do fine. Oh yea, I have the dreaded rocks on the bottom too.....still waiting for all the terrible things to happen because of them...Only you can decide if you are the type to stress about leaves or not. IF you want a watergarden with plants, dragonflies, maybe frogs will show up and a few goldfish I say go for it. IF you want to raise show koi, maybe not...