annoyance

Living Lives of Sterile Futility

Living Lives of Sterile Futility I started this blog post a few weeks back. I started it in anger and I realized as I was typing furiously into my iPhone amidst the ruins of my compost bins in the alley…

The “Foundations” of Building an Urban Garden

What you are looking at is the foundation stones from a house that used to sit on this lot. Every garden bed we build we know we are going to excavate some foundation. Luckily at this point we have a…

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

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.

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.

House Abandonned: The Tale of the Shell of Mezzacello

The house at Mezzacello is 151 years old this year. The house that exists today has been constructed in five sections over that period of time. The original 1868 farmhouse, the 1890 J. Lloyd addition, the 1910 Rufus Main addition,…

Feathered Exterminators, Landscapers, and Quality Control

At Mezzacello, we have a fence line that abuts the alleys to the south and west of the property. This is our front line for invasive species of vining weeds like poke, wisteria, and belladonna. I also store donated bags…

Harvest, Hunger, and the Art of Preservation

The harvesting of food is the single greatest chore in urban farming, the next greatest is preserving it!

Potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and duck eggs collected from the garden and livestock gardens at Mezzacello.

Ducks are Garden Ninjas

I left the gate open from the chicken yard to the potager garden for 10 seconds. I know it was 10 seconds because I was programming an Arduino system for a solar powered water pump. I was programming it for…

Ducks will take any opportunity to get in to the fenced potager garden for the primo bugs.