Events

Larry and Michelle Sanford-From Farmstead to Homestead

The property is 15 acres of lake bottom farm land just east of the
middle branch of Macon Creek on Redman Rd in Milan, Township, Monroe
County. It is heavy clay. When we bought it there was a fallen down
dairy barn, silo and lots of debris on about 1-2 acres and some woods
along the creek on the west side of the property. The rest had been
under cultivation or pastured in the past. We had the barn and its
concrete floor removed and the silo and all the debris. We were left
with a 1+ acre site that was bare "dirt." We seeded it with annual rye
as a cover and then broadcast native forbs on the site.
After that we started planting trees and shrubs: seedlings form Monroe County
Conservation district; seedlings from Native Plant Nursery; b & b trees
from where ever. This planting taught us that some of the flood plain
had been reclaimed by filing with foundry slag. The spot where we
started Michelle's garden just happened to be the only spot with good
soil. This apparently was the manure pile. There is about 12" of
composted manure there. After owning it about 2-3 years we started
building our house. It took nearly 2 years to complete (with all the
setbacks) and we moved in in April of 2010. Since then we've planted
many more trees and shrubs. There is about 10 A under cultivation which
our next door neighbor farms for us. We spend a lot of time in the
spring pulling garlic mustard from the flood plain. I'll probably think
of more later.