I recommend borrowing your neighbors tiller. If it works for you, great, if it doesn’t, post the brand, model, why it didn’t work for you, then maybe the internet could offer informed suggestions.

Yeah, borrow the neighbors'. It's a rare necessity to till, if you really even need to do it now (I'm a huge fan of no-till; if you need to get rid of grass, just bite the bullet once and spray, or lay plastic and let it rot just that one time, and so on).

My mother uses a Mantis and she's in her late seventies. My mother is also an incredibly spry, "Get out of my way, let me do it. No, seriously, you'll just mess it up. Move" late seventies sort of lady. She mostly uses it to dig holes for larger things and whatnot.

Do you have a truck?

Never a borrower or a loaner be. Especially when it comes to tillers. One rock or buried cement block and you are ethically obliged to buy your neighbor a new tiller, in my opinion. You can rent one, though. Or you can rent a truck and find your local composting facility and improve the soil over time with a steady application of a compost mulch.

I have a heavy-duty tiller. I don't remember the brand, and I'd have to go out in the barn to look, but even without doing that I can tell you it was worth the money in terms being very good at what it does and helped get our 2000+ sq ft vegetable garden up and running and a few misc jobs here and there. But I don't use it very often -- it is big, it is heavy and not easy to manuever, and I find it easier to hand dig with a shovel if it's not a really big area. For really big areas, though -- totally worth it. It's fast, efficient, and it goes DEEP (if set to do so). Keep in mind this thing cost over $800 a little over 4 years ago, so I would suggest renting the equipment as Annpat suggested. I rented a Mantis years ago and it was joke compared to a really good tiller; don't waste your money (purchase or rental) on something like that.

why do you think tilling is needed???? .. many of the local farmer dont even do it anymore .....

how big a bed are you building ... is it in shade.. what if any tree roots will you be working with???

rototilling thru roots.. will only make the tree make MORE ROOTS .. so in a few years.. you are further behind than when you started ...

regardless of size ... if you cant manage a machine.. you are probably not using it properly .... if you want 6 inches of depth .. you should probably till one inch at a time .. until you achieve the depth you want ...

unless you are doing a huge bed like mx ... a big machine is not worth investing in .. imo .. and in fact... if you know small engines.. you can come get my giant machine that i havent used in 20 years .. lol ... but you havent told us where you are ..

what is your soil type?? .. sand is much easier to deal with.. compared to sand ...

frankly.... skip the whole idea .. unless you have farmer level goals ... at which point.. buy the tractor with the tiller pto ... go big.. or go home ... or stay home ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=tractor+with+the+tiller+pto&iax=images&ia=images

kill the grass in place ... and build a lasagna bed on top .. and by fall ... you ought to have a good bed to work in ....

the only way to make a new bed immediately.. is extreme heavy labor.. or heavy checkbook gardening [does anyone still use a checkbook.. or am i the only one left ...]

think outside the box you are already tilling in ... imo ..

ken

IDK, Ken -- I killed the grass for the giant perennial border in the fall, then in the spring DH used the tiller to till the whole she-bang then edged it, the bed was prepped beautifully this way, it is a joy to dig in after a good, deep once-and-done tilling. This is the gigantic border project I posted on (the one that forever damaged my wrist from the hundreds of plants I planted in a span of one week), point being a tiller is totally worth it for big jobs like that or the big veggie patch. But yea -- I think the OP should rent it, not buy it if she's going to till.

And hey! I still use a checkbook :0)