Hi John,
Letting the pond slowly evaporate is pretty much exactly what I do....doesn't make for an ornamental pond you'd want to enter into a tour.<g> As it happens, our dry season coincides with the end of my primary planting season; so I just turn a blind eye and let the levels fall. Obviously depending on rainfall we do get, the process can be surprisingly quick. The level can drop below the crown of the plant in 4 weeks are so.
The biggest danger....we have some kind of subterranean beetle here that can get into the pots if the water gets too low and whatever the hell they are....they devour tubers! You don't even know they are there until you dump the pots.
Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is. And you must bend to its power or live a lie.”― Miyamoto Musashi
"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." ~ Jimi Hendrix
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”― Stephen Hawking
Craig