Newly finished wildlife pond with edges planted

Bring garden soil up to the edge, levelling it with the adjoining ground. Tamp down the soil with the back of a rake head so it is just below the edging strip, otherwise when it rains, soil will wash into the pond.

One way of disguising the edge (as seen here) is with mosses and plants that will eventually trail over the edge, or hide the edge with their large leaves.

Expect the pondwater to become green to begin with, as algae flourishes in the light. It will settle down once you add some submerged and floating plants, which will take up excess nitrates from the water and block much of the UV light (both causes of algal flushes).

As our pond was designed for wildlife, we originally added some frogspawn from a friend's garden pond (never take spawn from the wild - and now the advice is not take it from any other pond to prevent disease spread, so just wait for some frogs to do what comes naturally). The newts found the pond themselves, and of course the birds don't take long to arrive either. Fortunately no ducks, which would have made quite a mess.