[mistergreen]

yeah, you don't want to wade in to soil substrate.. it'll create a mess.
Go for pot and tub containers as suggested.

 

[mistergreen]

I'm hoping every inch will eventually be covered by rooted plants!

And the beauty of a (virtually) fishless pond is - if it gets murky from me or those d**nd otters or whatever - so what? It'll all settle out again and the plants won't care . . . I would have to go in to do maintenance on tubbed plants anyway - If I added pot stands they would have to go in the middle because the sides are too sloped.

if the soil is disturbed, a lot of nutrients will be in the water column and trigger the dreaded algae.
By wading you mean walking in the pond right?
With containers, you can walk around the container and not walk on the soil.