AppliedSTEM

My First Garden

Understanding and Exploring the Role of Balance in Our Relationship with the Natural World is a critical 21st Century skill.

Why is it Called “Mezzacello”?

Rick and I had been searching for a house in Old Towne East (a downtown residential neighborhood in Columbus, OH) for a few years. We talked about what we wanted to do with a house, and what it would be…

Why “Poor Boys Have Poor Ways”?

This was our original inspiration for starting Mezzacello. We had vision, but no funds. Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson

Why "Poor Boys Have Poor Ways"?

Urban Farm, Urban Problems

Urban Farm, urban problems vandals, theft and working out the path of sustainability and ecosystems. We rebuild and keep working.

Practical Water Management

Water is one of the holy trinity of resources in an urban ecosystem, alongside biomass, and flora and fauna.

A Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystem

A big hole, bigger dreams, some resources, disasters, and a summer later, we have a pond. And there were ducks.

A Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystem

Compost, Soil Enrichment, and Garden Infrastructure

In place composting like you see in nature on the forest floor. A lasagna garden. That is this lesson.

Compost, Soil Enrichment, and Garden Infrastructure
final layer of soil and nutrients

Hugelkultur at Mezzacello

German for Hill Culture, this ancient form of permaculture transforms lifeless, heavy clay dirt into a forest floor and captures CO2.