Front tines? Sounds like you've got a "shake n bake" tiller. I've got one similar. It has some good advantages and some real disadvantages, especially the front tine part that shakes you to pieces. First of all, don't try to till dry, hard ground, and second, don't try to till wet ground. Dry ground will get you nowhere, wet ground will make huge clods worse than not tilling at all. If the ground is dry, sprinkle it a bit, then let it dry a couple days so that the ground is moist but not wet and the water you added has soaked down into the ground--you don't want a wet surface with dry underneath, just a dryish crust, then moist going down. This will be the best consistency to get the tiller into the ground. Then, you may have to make several passes. When the soil is tough, a real strong person can hold the tiller back and kind of let it slowly bounce forwards across the garden. Then go over a second time, but don't follow your tracks exactly as the tines will not have cut the soil down evenly and there will be underground ridges to loosen. If you haven't gotten very deep after 3 or 4 passes, you probably won't get any deeper with 50. If the ground is really hard and you can get down 3 or 4 inches, stop with that. Work your composted manure into this and plant your garden. Even if the soil is loose later, you really don't need to till over 4 to 6 inches, and add organic matter--it isn't truly necessary, but it sure is helpful in keeping the ground loose and tillable in the future. Cover the walk rows with grass clippings in the summer, add well rotted manure when you work the ground each year. This will help keep the soil soft in the future so tilling won't be such a chore. As to the rocks, just pick and toss the large ones that the tiller bounces off of. Smaller, gravel sized ones can stay put. Good luck! One last thought--depending where you are in Nevada, make sure the ground isn't still frozen--that is like trying to till cement. If you find ice crystals in the ground, wait another few days to a week.

That is very interesting about the type III recommendation. I'll keep that in mind, although locally, almost everything I see is Type II. I was wondering if I would need something to help the clematis up the fence or not. I am going to paint the fence, and was trying to decide whether to stain it a wood color or paint it dark green like the neighboring shed. Have to think about which one would look better behind the clematis. I do plan to look up the heights, I was just saying that if one of these that I already have is in fact short, then I can just mix it in with a taller one. Good to know those fade, I was afraid of that. Thanks for your help!

Something that helps me is to have a backbone of plants that get aphids but are not adversely affected by them. That way you have a constant "backlog" of predatory bugs ready to pounce when other things get infected. In my yard this is the attractive ever-blooming FL native firebush shrub which hosts a lot of lacewings and ladybugs, I have never seen the specific aphid species that likes it move to my veggies but this might be chance. Also I have tons and tons of predatory and parasitic wasps that are brought in by my many pollinator-friendly flowers. Flowers good for this in FL are: Lantana (VERY easy to root via cuttings, I do it without hormone in about a week) Porterweed (do not grow in South FL if u do not have native species) Butterfly bush (fragrant and easy. I prefer large old-fashioned ones like Black Knight and White Profusion because they choke out weeds/fend for themselves) Blanketflower Zinnia (cheap and easy to grow from seed, you probably are familiar with them. My favorite is the heirloom 'Envy'.) Gaura (long-lived perennial native to Southern USA. interesting flower shapes) Pentas (tolerates more shade than others on this list, available basically everywhere in FL for a reason) All of those have very long bloom times (porterweed and lantana are ever blooming if there's no frost). Winter cassia, Chaste tree, Purple coneflower, Flatwoods plum are also great but their bloom times aren't quite as long. You might also want to experiment with "sacrificial plants". I've only had lubbers once but they only ate my sweet potato vine (grows like a weed so I don't care) and my zinnias, perhaps they prefer them over the others? Might be worth testing. But that's just me/my view. I don't like spraying and also I don't have the time to spray, I work and go to college. I'll let the bugs eat each other instead LOL Other than that raised beds definitely helped when I grew tomatoes. Peppers in my experience are basically pest-free, they're just heavy feeders is all. Also they perform best in protected/partial sun for me. Epsom salt is good against slugs if those become a problem after heavy rain. It's literally magnesium so it doesn't hurt plants and personally my FL soil is deficient in the mineral so plants appreciate it. My last tip: don't bother growing squash. Hope that helps and best of luck

Maybe build the tallest part out to get a square door to have hang & shoes beneath. Easier to find a square door. You could make your own angle door, too. Then have recessed storage thru new built wall. Kind of like this. Excuse rough sketch. Maybe it will help explain.