It’s Time For a New Map
The 2024 Map of Mezzacello Urban Farm. Click here to view a labeled version.
There is a lot happening at Mezzacello Urban Farm. Construction and infrastructure upgrades have changed the farm from the original wood fences and simple beds. New steel infrastructure and the addition of the steel trellises in the allee, and it’s time for a new map.
It’s All In The Details
A labeled version of the new map
I am aware that there is a lot going on here but what can I say? I have a lot of R&D at Mezzacello Urban Farm. From food, to animals, to gardens, to ecologies, to renewables, to labs and mobile labs, and solar and wind power — all in downtown Columbus. To make this easier, let me focus the map into six vertical strips:
The Formal Gardens
The Hornbeam Allee
The Parterre Lane
The Potager Garden
The Labs and Runs
The Compost Areas
The Six Vertical Axes of Mezzacello Urban Farm
The Formal Gardens
The Formal Gardens have been upgraded with two new Eco Gazebos that are 10’ circular gazebos that are covered, have tables, and have their own renewable power systems. Each eco gazebo also has an LED chandelier (or swappable lab bench lighting) and a compact AC/DC generator charged by the gazebo dome’s solar array. These eco gazebos can be used during workshops and camps, or for private events as group conversation areas.
The Hornbeam Allee
The Hornbeam Allee has been completely retooled. At the south end (The Narnia Fountain) a concrete pad has been installed and graded to allow rolling labs and animal cages to roll right onto it. Atop the concrete pad is a large steel pavilion with it’s own power generation system, lights, speakers, and cameras and a swappable LED chandelier or lab bench light. This will serve as a classroom (with a cover for rain), or a presentation stage (with video livestreaming capability) or as a focal area for private or public events.
The Hornbeam Allee will also have three new trellises that will serve to cover the allee in inclement weather, vastly increasing working areas for camps and workshops or to provide shade and cover for events. The arched trellises wiill also be studded with LED cafe lights and will provide a lovely rhythm between the hornbeams. The arched trellises will, of course, have their own integrated solar charging stations and dedicated cameras for capturing events in the hornbeam allee.
Between the Narnia Pavilion and the Hornbeam Trellises the Hornbeam Allee wil also be getting a new drainage system and a regraded surface. As part of the regrade, green pavement infrastructure will be installed to help support grass growth and health. All the garden edges have been rebricked and relined.
Another cool addition to the Hornbeam Allee axis will be the arbor gate at the start of the Hornbeam Allee. The arbor will provide a trelliss and gate over the sidewalk with flowers and vines growing over it. There will be two self-serve stations under the trellis to facilitate checkin for camps, workshops, tours, or public and private events.
The Parterre Lane
The Parterres and Pond will remain in tact. The big changes here are with the pergola, the biodome, and a new arbor at the south end of the Parterre Lane. The Biodome will be relocated to the site of the current dining pergola. Relocating the biodome to the pergola will have many benefits.
The biodome will now be a permanent installation with water, power, and ventilation systems built in. In addition to infrastructure, the biodome will also become a permanent home to rabbits and test animals and mobile coops.
The northern edge of the Parterre Lane will be home to the 220 sq ft four season classroom and a 100 sq ft porch addition to the existing house. The classroom will have three french doors that will open to the gardens and will also serve as whiteboards. The space will also provide additional kitchen and conservatory space.
Against the Potager Gardens I have installed three steel raised beds that will be watered from the automatic watering systems in the Potager Gardens. These beds will increase my production yield by 22%. Plus, they are steel and look terrific!
The Potager Gardens
The Potager Gardens are dedicated to food production, soil and ecology, and water reclamation research. Each of the four quadrants of the Potager Garden has six beds that are oriented east to west and get full southern sun. There are lots of innovations in the Potager Garden.
The Potager Garden is fully fenced with steel fencing and three access gates on the east, north and south sides. The steel fence has a 12” buffer area lined with tar paper and weed cloth and filled with pea gravel. This buffer is designed to withstand a flamethrower to destroy any weeds that attempt to grow up the fence, but spare the vegetables in the Potager beds.
The Potager beds are hybrid raised beds. Each bed is slightly raised by 3” and dug down 18”. This was done to mitigate the alluvial clay that is common to the soil here in downtown Columbus, OH. The soil now in place is engineered soil that is high in minerals, substrates and organic material that is produced almost entirely on site at Mezzacello. Thiese are lasagna gardens, which is a form of permaculture structure that does not disturb soil ecology, but adds compost and minerals back to the garden beds with each season.
The middle four beds of the Potager Garden are dedicated to vertical gardening. A 10’ x 10’ steel structure is in place to allow vining plants to grow up and over the north south and east west walkways of the Potager Garden. The southern four beds of sector Beta and Gamma feature a tunnel structure that allows Mezzacello to sense moisture, nutrient, temperature, and Ph levels via a buried tunnel 18” under the four beds with remote sensors.
The Potager Garden is watered MOSTLY with rain water collected from the various structures of Mezzacello Urban Farm. Rain water is pumped into the 3 meter tall Bioreactor fitted with a 1000L pressurized tank. This water is then pumped through a timed valve assembly to four spinning sprinklers situated at all four corners of the vertical trellis. This system waters EVERYTHING, including the raised beds at the periphery of the Potager Garden.
More on the Bioreactor assembly that is adjacent to the northeast corner of the Potager Garden. At the base of the Bioreactor is another 1000L IBC tank. This tank is used to produce compost at Mezzacello Urban Farm. The bioreactor uses accelerant to speed up digestion of the greens and browns into rich compost in a matter of weeks.
Additionally the liquid accelerant produces a fantastic fertilizer from the liquid runoff of the biodigester. There are plans to build an additional Bioreactor that will focus on biofuel gas that can then be pressurized and used as a low carbon capture fuel source.
This entire Potager Garden has a full sustainable load of purpose and nutrition. In addition to food, great soil, and compost, this garden is also designed to harvest useful weeds which are collected, dried, and milled into chicken and rabbit feed pellets for use over winter. In the winter, the gardens are planted with oat, soybean, and rye to continuously imporove the soil and return nutrients and manures.
The Labs and The Runs
There are two series of labs and runs at Mezzacello Urban Farm. A “lab” is a 10x12’ shed with a steel roof sitting atop a concrete slab foundation. On the southern edge of Mezzacello is Lab 1 (livestock) and Lab 2 (energy collection and distribution) and on the northern edge is Lab 3 (Bioengineering) and Lab 4 (Biotech). Each lab has a 10' x 13’ space between them. To the south lies the poultry run, and to the north, the covered and weatherproof data center.
Each lab is equipped with its own solar array and backup battery system tied into a 1500W 1485Wh AC inverter generator which powers everything in that lab. Lab 2 has an additional 2000W generator which is alternately powered by three solar panels and 4 400W Vertical Axis Wind Turbines situated on the southern face of the sheds to harvest winds and traffic wind. These wind turbines power almost the entire farm’s electrical load including all pumps and security lights.
Each lab also has a dedicated whiteboard and a data terminal to connect to the servers in Lab 3. The bioreactor tower has a waether station, and a 5G Wifi Repeater which creates a mesh network all throughout the farm. Lab 2 also has a dedicated battery backup featuring 6 1200Ah 12V LiFePO4 batteries and a flywheel for mechanical storage of electricity generated by wind power.
These labs are used by workshops and summer camp programs to continue to innovate and develop applied STEM sustainability models that can be deployed anywhere using off the shelf hardware and basic engineering skills. If you are interested in our applied STEM summer camps or year round workshops, please use these links to learn more.
