I decided to 'upgrade' my mini pond - it's been sitting in a plastic barrel for years and it looking it's age. Found a cedar half barrel planter and started the upgrade.
Stage 1 - water proofing - the barrel had a drilled hole for drainage, so using resin and a piece of wood I blocked that off as well as the larger gaps.
stage 2 - spend a week soaking the wood until water proof
stage 3 - transfer
some of the plants from old pond
Done
Ha - the plant transfer was messy - separating the rushes wasn't too bad but the waterlily fought back (I now have 4 bits of tuber).
New cedar mini pond has some waterlily (the bit with the most leaves) two pots of rushes, a pot of watercress (not yet rooted) three inches of elodea (the green bits) and a non-native duck weed. Oh and snails - the ramshorns had been breeding.
One text conversation and my niece is getting a mini mini pond (3 inch deep bowl) with the next bit of waterlily tied to a stone, two bits of rush and a piece of watercress in the gravel at the bottom, one inch of elodea and two pieces of duck weed... oh and some snails.
I'm going to be cleaning out the old pond for days - I think I will set up another mini pond in case the other niece/nephew want one and because I hate to see good plants being binned.