what can I get away with

one of the questions people have is "what can I get away with"
and it is a good question,
the big issue is that you usually will not know until you have lost all, 
kind of like the game where the winner is the one that tosses or rolls the coin closest to line without going past, you loose if you go past the line.

you usually can take any plot of land and till it up and plant it with noting else done to the soil and get away with it for the first year, and sometimes the second year, but usually by the 3rd year you will have a total failure

water is something you can't usually mess up,
everything needs water

and skip it for a day because you wanted a vacation and you will loose everything,
no point in even bothering to plant things if you have to skip water at some point.
you can't get away with much on the water.

if thinking about fencing,
you will have no idea if you will be needing it,
my test without fence in one plot lasted about 2 hours till the dog messed it up.
so at least I found out early and did not loose anything but 30 min. of work to fix the dirt,

weeding you can usually get away with quite a bit,
you will see when the weeds are choking out your plants,
my suggestion is to not wait until they go to seed.

so what I am trying to say when you ask what you can get away with,
is to really think about how things can turn out.

better to till up the land and have it all ready mid winter just in case your tiller breaks when you need it,
or in case you get sick...
pushing the limit hurt me this spring from tiller failure,
not where I wanted to be at the time, and lack of preparing the dirt is still hurting me now