1/2 acre, nice size garden! My veggie garden is way smaller.
One of my favorite tools is my Mantis mini tiller, small enough for me to handle and easy for me to maneuver around. I use it primarily to turn under the garden soil before planting while mixing in compost or peat, some type of organic soil amendment to help hold moisture in the sandy soil.
Before planting my rows, drip irrigation lines are laid between them. And those areas get covered with the permeable black mulch film to suppress weeds.
After the seedlings appear, I go back with my garden hoe to disturb the soil around the seedlings and put straw around them to suppress weeds. Sorry! Hope that's not too much information! Kinda got off on a tangent..
It is true that once the soil is tilled, all those little weed seeds that have been buried will sprout! So it is important that the soil is covered by some means to keep that from happening.
But I find that little tiller to be useful in other tasks around my yard, too. When planting trees or shrubs, it breaks up the soil to make it easier to remove from the planting hole, and mixes in the soil amendment before planting. Wherever a new flower bed is planned, that's the first tool to get it started. Also I like to shallowly edge the foundation plantings with it and fill in with mulch. It also has an edging blade that can be used on one side to cut turf.
My garden is much smaller than yours, I don't know if my methods would be adequate for your situation, but wishing you a good garden season this year!