Using a tiller produces a finer grade of particle which seems fine when planting but it also means that when it settles and it will it packs more tightly; therefore your garden/yard soil will pack harder even if one never walks on it. Many people keep saying you never have to go deeper than x inches which means x inches of soil is worked and worked and worked and worked and worked till it is devoid of any natural material it once had. My gardens, combined, are only approx. fifty by sixty feet plus or minus but I usually every year dig at least one, more often two, holes approx. four by four, plus or minus at least sixteen inches deep and bury plant debri plus kitchen wastes and what ever I have in those holes to keep the sub-soil as rich as possible. The soil that was in the bottom of these holes also becomes the new top soil. Of late I have been shallow planting my potatoes but when I deep plant they are a minimum of eight inches deep and I do not want them sitting on pathetic sub-soil. No matter what some may say, especially those who use raised gardens and do not deal with the natural soil, rippers or sub-soil machines were developed for a reason. If you can get richer sub-soil, DO it, you only gain, you will lose nothing. Do not forget some trees have deep tap roots and the entire root area of others is very shallow which can be seen when they blow over.

Soil becomes compacted when the pore spaces between the soil particles, that normally hold air, are compressed and the air is squeezed out. adequate amounts of organic matter can help keep those soil particles seperated and hold air in the soil so the mineral particles do not collapse on each other. More than likely where that truck was parked you would find, upon analysis, that the soil contains little to no organic matter. You could, as suggested by luckygal, use a mulch rather than some other, harder, material or you could add sufficient amounts of organic matter to that soil first and then lay down about any paver you wished which would aid in spreading the weight on the soil some but would still require periodic additions of more OM so the soil does not again compact.

I couldn't quite determine if you are willing to go with a top load washing machine or are set on a front loader from your opening post. If you wanted to go top load washer, yes, the opinions of the 2018 Speed Queens are not rosy. However, the reviews of the commercial top loading Maytag are quite positive. Someone more studious on this topic than me hopefully will come along and provide a link to video and comments about this commercial Maytag machine for you. You might be interested in it. Conversely, I would suspect that coming from european FL washers, you might find a top load washer to be not quite up to snuff or speed regarding spin speeds. I would definitely not want to use a ventless or condenser dryer with a top loading washing though. It would take weeks to get a load dry, due to the lower spin speeds a TL can offer. For me, a vented traditional dryer would be a must in that scenario. Speed Queen, from what I understand is still manufacturing a front load model for residential use, but it's the unitized washer/dryer stacked model. If you didn't mind having the units attached such as this, it might be of interest to you. We have one or a couple members here with the unitized SQ FL seem to be pleased with them, minus a minor glitch or two. Most machines have their "glitch" issue. Not wishing for too much 'tech' on your machines, maybe looking into the unitized SQ FL would be worth your while. They are pricey, but you have the Miele budget already in hand, and these are not as costly as Miele. Close, but not that high. Good luck, and welcome back to the states.

For 15" depth, change the ht of the layers to 3,3,3, and 5" respectively. It doesn't matter if the planter is on legs or a concrete slab, water retention and drainage will not vary so you could notice. If you set the planter on a slab, you'll gain some geothermal heat through the bottom, and you can retain some of it by way of the insulation at the sides and by mulching heavily for the winter. If you set it up on legs, you might as well not bother with the insulation. You'll have eliminated the heat gain via conduction through the bottom of the planter. While the insulation might cause a lag in how fast the soil temperatures move upward and downward in the planter, it won't offer enough protection against ambient temps of say 0*F to save plants for which that represents a killing low. In order for insulation to work, you really need an extraneous heat source you can trap in the planter. Example: Take a plastic cup of water and put it in the freezer. At the same time, put a cooler with a plastic cup of water in it in the same freezer. Within 3-4 hours, the cup alone will have reached the same temperature as all the rest of the freezer's ingredients. The cup/water in the cooler that's in the freezer will take much longer to freeze and to reach the same temperature as the rest of the freezer's stores, but within a day or so, it will be the same temperature as the frozen water in the cup that's unprotected by the cooler. Wire a small light bulb so it's inside the cooler (an extraneous heat source), and the story changes markedly. Example: If you have a plant in an unheated garage over-wintering at head level, and one setting on the garage floor, which is warmer? The one at head level, even though there is SOME heat rising through the floor. Now, cover the plant on the floor with an over-turned cardboard box to trap extraneous heat rising through the floor. NOW, the plant under the box is warmer by 10-15*F than the plant on the head level shelf. Al