Laying new lawn (plowing the old area...)

If a farmer comes to plow, then of course you do the whole area in one go. According to the pictures, it is also enough if you go over it with a motor hoe, then pick up the green stuff, then level it with a rake. I would seriously reconsider deep plowing.

The first question is, of course, why nothing grows there today? What needs to be done so that grass grows there? Unfortunately, I can’t see where you live ... We have now had two dry summers in a row; I would "never ever" lay down nearly 1000 m² of lawn. You can’t water that much for it to work. Make yourselves 300...500 m² of lawn including planning an irrigation system, and plant more shrubs or create a meadow on the rest. For the lawn, you’d best get a robotic mower. I would still sow in the fall (September).
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Why would you reconsider deep plowing?

I will take a closer look at the motor hoe. As I said, we have hardly dealt with it so far and I have never dealt with it before. I’m also a bit horrified by it...

We live in Lower Saxony. Here in our village we have both sandy soil, yay for us, and moor soil. We probably just never properly cared for the lawn. Also, we live on the edge of the forest, surrounded by many oaks, pines... The lawn “in front” on the property is better maintained. You can see a clear difference, but that is because we took better care of it there, scarified, etc.

“Back there,” the lawn in question, it just always lay there. Playing, when we were kids, and that’s it. Also, over half of it was once a vegetable patch. Long ago, an asparagus field...

Thanks for the thoughts. We want to leave a part as a play meadow for the children. Swings, trampoline, and playhouse should be there, as well as open space for romping around. And for a dog, which is supposed to come eventually. We had already considered planting a few fruit trees. Maybe that part will really just be left fallow.

I still need to ponder this.

We will probably start the project only next fall. We are busy inside at least until mid-October. Then the craftsmen have to be finished, but we still need to “move” and do some painting work beforehand. So it was probably wishful thinking on my part to have nice new lawn NEXT summer. My tendency is also to sow the lawn in the fall.

But a “rush job” doesn’t make sense right now anyway.

I also probably just have to get smarter about the options again.

Thanks to you all for your tips and ideas!!!

usually: spraying, waiting, milling, sowing.

right now there is a rather unfounded hate against Glyphosate in the media, but that will subside once the lawsuits in the US are dismissed, and the whole thing is de-emotionalized and made scientific again.

nicely bury the play tower made of pine KDI and two car tires under the seesaw, but think glyphosate is dumb :P

if you don't want glyphosate, on the contrary, the other things you could spray are actually poisonous too. then I would refrain from spraying and only mill.

think about the following: mill now, then sow mustard, lupines or similar. let it freeze to death, run a thick mower/mulcher over it, mill after the frost, then sow lawn.

There is also Round up without [Glyphostat]

There is also Roundup without glyphosate

Glyphosate is not carcinogenic, at least not more than beef and chamomile tea, definitely less carcinogenic than alcohol. Roundup contains a variety of ingredients, and while glyphosate is harmless, people are not really sure about Roundup. It simply has never been scientifically studied. The "new" Roundup is acetic acid. The Wikipedia article on the subject is extremely informative. But it's similar to vaccination, the perceived reality of many people is quite different from the fact-based one.

The "new" roundup is acetic acid.

yes, a great spin. A substance that nobody uses was introduced so that one can say there is also "roundup" without glyphosate. Absolutely irrelevant given the market share. Really a great PR coup, brilliant framing!

Glyphosate is primarily an antibiotic, that is what it was initially approved for! The fact is that it massively disrupts the gut microbiome and thus changes its composition, see bit.ly/2TouSM1

As a chelating agent, it further disrupts the uptake of many minerals.

To all city neurotics: In our family there is a lot of agriculture. Real people who make a living from it. There is a canola field. It has just been harvested. Since you can't always just grow canola, as crop rotation now wheat is to be planted there. Or brewing barley. What to do? The Danish method: burn the field, then plow the ash under. Not allowed in Germany because of CO2. The local method: one round of glyphosate, then plowing, then reseeding. I ask the glyphosate haters for alternatives, but alternatives that also work, where you don’t need 50 Romanians to hack weeds in the wheat to get the old canola out. Because in the end the farmer is supposed to make some money. You won’t find glyphosate residues in canola oil, wheat, or beer. Bet? K: