Naturestrip prep before mulch?

We have a naturestrip to the side of our house - which is on the other side of the side boundary fence, so we don't actually see it. We were going to turf this area (approx 9m x 2.5m) but because we can't see it from our side of the fence and because we have mulch being delivered in the next couple of days which is more than we need, we hit on the idea that we would just turn the soil, spread the mulch and scatter some grassy plants amongst it (lomandra, kanga paws, dietes) with a manchurian pear that will hopefully provide some shade to our yard in the years to come. I thought it would be easier to plant after the mulch so it is easier to spread.
Saturday hubby and I got out and we turned the top 20cm and broke it up (it hasn't been touched since we built apart from being sprayed with roundup) and now I am considering soaking it all with a mixture of powerfeed and molasses before the mulch goes down. The soil is quite a nice consistency once you get through the top 5cm of baked clay and has plenty of worms doing their thing.
Is this a good idea and is this sufficient?
I figure seeing as we won't be getting any real benefit/use from it that a self-sustaining approach is probably best - just the occasional water and top up of mulch.

It sounds like we have a similar idea!
I've been wondering what to do with my front nature strip - I don't want lawn, I want it to be plants but it's as hard as rock and clay underneath - I was thinking of getting some compost and mulch and powerfeed etc onto it maybe at Easter, or earlier, and let that do it's thing for a while to improve the soil and then think about planting after a few months

Fu (the god that he seems to be) recommends treating the sand for gardens beds the same as for lawn prep... using the zeolite, organic soil etc.... there are a few active threads on the lawn laying... take a look

BP - I would follow the turf prep but considering it is only going to be scattered plantings I feel the use of zeolite/organic soil throughout the whole bed would be a waste, plus we have enough soil volume and if we added more soil we would have to get rid of some somehow. It's more a case of conditioning the soil we have there.
Here in Melbourne we don't have sand soils - we have clay which is the opposite. Our soil is great at water retention which is shown when you dig passed the baked top layer, but can become problematic if the plants dislike moist roots all the time. That being said, I have a high plant success rate so far with only a couple of camellias karking it so the soil mustn't be too bad.
I sprayed about a cup of molasses and a good slug of powerfeed (re)using the seasol/powerfeed hose-on applicator bottle, then raked over it all to level the soil we turned on the weekend. I might scatter some Olsens Greenbio over it all in the morning before the mulch arrives.
At least now it isn't compacted like it was and hopefully whatever water I add now will remain under the mulch instead of baking out.

Mulch...
http://www.sustainableoutdoors.com.au/mulching/

Verges and prep
http://www.sustainableoutdoors.com.au/verge-gardens/

add lots of compost, zeolite, spongolite, perlite instead of our bentonite.

Do what you see in this pic except with the things I mentioned above. Maybe some dolomite of lime too.
http://www.sustainableoutdoors.com.au/bentonite-clay/