Farming Tips

When Mezzacello Was New, Father’s Day, and Good Food

In 1871 people, when Mezzacello was new, families, children, and probably servants spent their days very differently. On a rainy day, me and my favorite dad, Rick made a visit to The Columbus Museum of Art to see the Dutch…

An antique high chair for a baby on exhibit at the Columbus Museum of Art.

The STEM-Based Origins of Mezzacello: My Own Private SOIL Lab

Six years ago Rick and I had just purchased this 151 year old house and two vacant plots of land adjacent to the south. I knew I wanted a garden, Rick wanted a garden. I’ve posted about some of those…

The yard in 2013 and the enclosed, sustainable ecosystems today.

A Tale of North and South Korea: or East Mezzacello & West Mezzacello

North and South Korea: East and West Mezzacello North and South Korea is at the heart of Mezzacello. We always knew we were of two minds when we designed Mezzacello. Rick wanted Pretty and Plentiful, I wanted Functional and Farmland;…

New fountain garden

Why We Do Everything Ourselves

This is a blogpost that perfectly underscores our mission of Grow, Maintain, Sustain, Explain lives and breathes. Teach by showing.

Why We do everything ourselves

The Neighbors Truck

The Neighbors Truck Mezzacello is an enclosed sustainable urban ecosystem, but it is also part of a larger ecosystem of community that is our awesome neighbors. Community is like a garden, I didn’t know this but I quickly discovered it…

The Neighbors Truck
Jim with our neighbor Randy in front of his trusty Ford Ranger.

Parterre Gardens, Guerrilla Gardens

That one time when I came home from a conference to find 64 1-gallon boxwood bushes that had to be planted. farewell DMZ.

Boxwood parterre gardens with herb gardens in the triangles being installed in the promenade.

The Perfect Cover Crop for Unsightly Chain Link Fence

The original fenceline of Mezzacello and how we disguised the chain link fence we had to create.

The original state of the yard, just after we removed all the overgrown vegetation.

Preserving Eggs 1860 Style

Every summer I waste eggs that I don’t get out to people in need or I can’t eat fast enough. I collect fresh chicken and duck eggs. I bring them in to the house confident that their natural bloom will…

You Rock My World

Once upon a time there were three houses on the lot that is today Mezzacello. Today there is only one that remains But the shadow of the footprints of the other two rubble foundations persist in the grass on hot…

digging into foundations
The limestone stoop to a former Greek Revival townhouse that once stood on this site.

The “Keeping Up With The Jones’” Effect

When you are doing something you’ve never done before you are doing something new. It’s easy to think that you are exactly where you need to be. What I mean when I say “Keeping Up With The Jones’” I don’t…

Seamus Patrick and Jeff Allan Marion’s gorgeous lantern garden party.