Question
Hello,
I'm doing new landscaping at my house and have a question on preparing the bed.  I ripped out all of the existing stuff and want to reshape the bed a little and build it up higher.  I have a rotatiller that I'll be using to break up the existing soil.  OK, here's my question.  After I till, to build up the bed, should I throw some new topsoil on top of the existing soil, and then rotatill again to mix it all together, or do I just add new topsoil and grade it over the existing, without mixing it all together?  Also, what about fertilizer?  When should I add that and mix that in?  To maybe help you answer, the front of my house does not get a lot of sun, so I'll be putting things like azalias, rodudendrums, skyrockets, and maybe a Japanese maple in my new bed.  Thanks a lot for your time and help.

Answer
save yourself time and $$$. just add good topsoil on top of the ground already present to make berms. add peat moss to the plant holes & mix w/existing soil. make a saucer around the plants to collect water. after planting use espoma products (hollytone-evergreens & other acid loving plants, plantone-non-acid loving, treetone-deciduos trees, etc.) to fertilize with by sprinkling a coffee cupfull of it around the base of each plant. the rain will do the rest. get it from your local garden center/nursery and quiz them on landscape maintenance and construction.
lay newspaper 2-4 layers thick over the soil and mulch w/2-4 " of rootmulch. if it's a shady area try installing plants that don't require a lot of light especially to flower. try hosta, impatiens, dogwoods, arborvitaes, etc. skyrockets (most junipers), azaleas, rhodos, and red maples require full to partial sun to flowewr and/or keep red foliage.
good luck.