Hi, I think your plan is a good one. If your mulch is not the nugget type (takes longer to break down), the whole works may break down enough so you can till it in. If you have an especially thick layer of newspaper, you may have to remove some of it but that should be relatively easy.

If it was me, I'd till it again (after shuffle hoeing the weeds), add and till in all the amendments I wanted added, then put a 6" deep layer of mulch down. In the spring pull back the mulch where you want to plant and plant. Then put down more mulch.

Unless you're doing annuals, you will only need to add fertilizer or maybe compost a couple of times a year and keep 6" of mulch down.

If a weed pops up, pull it and put mulch on the spot.

That kind of mulch is nice, even to till in with dirt. I do it all the time now. (Assuming you're talking about the shredded hardwood mulch.) You'd be surprised, next spring, how much that mulch has composted anyway! Add some compost along with it. Another idea--I've also tried putting cardboard underneath mulch and compost, and even under a couple of inches, the cardboard is gone in about 3 months--worms love it, it just composts away. That would help the weeds.

Other people can probably help with bed-making but also have you considered planting something in the fall that grows through the winter? If you're thinking of veggies, you can do some kind of green-cover or if it's ornamentals, there are lots that look great all winter and don't need much care.

If the bed is mostly ready, you can finish it and start planting some stuff in the fall (around October). That is a great time to plant some perenials (and seeds too I think)

If you need to get the bed ready, I suggest lasagna gardening. I tried it this summer, and it is working great!! My basil is huge and bushy. You can google lasagna gardening, or go on over to the composting forum, and enter it into the search box.

Like I said, I have basil in mine, along with tomato plants. Next spring, I will plant a crape myrtle there, and the dirt will be nice and airy!!

romandub ~

a) Depending on how large an area you're working on, cover it with black plastic (or trash bags) and let it "cook" in this heat. Put the triple digit weather to work for you. This will go a long way in killing anything that's left over from the tilling work that you may or may not be able to do in this heat.

b) After that, lasagna. I love it. I've done it a couple of times in my front beds. Like lisatx04 said, it's great, and you can google for info. The basics are alternating your greens and browns with a thick layer of newspaper on bottom, all to a height of 6-18". Then cover all that with the mulch you have - no one will know that you have decomposing yuck underneath. By spring it'll be more than ready to dig into.