A Garden of People and Ideas

Mezzacello is an enclosed urban garden ecosystem. There are many gardens on the property. One of the most important is the gardens of people and ideas.

What do I mean when I say a garden of people and ideas? Well, Mezzacello is just too big for me to do on my own. I need help occasionally from friends and neighbors. I use social media, my blog and my contacts at the PAST Foundation to help gather those people to help me at the farm. I also call on my neighbors around Mezzacello. In return for food, flowers, eggs, compost, and manure they provide me the occasional volunteer or perform ESSENTIAL neighborhood watch efforts for me. I provide eggs and food to young mothers and the elderly along my street, and in return they watch out for me. I have on many occasions had a neighbor text me to tell me your chickens are out, or there is someone in your yard.

You may not think of this as a garden, but if you reframe the problem you see that it really is. You tend these relationships. You make them healthy and sustainable. You feed them with grace and kindness and they return a yield. Rick’s formal gardens give them something beautiful and peaceful to look at or aspire to. A garden is a place for the mind, soul and body.

The whole point of Mezzacello is to reframe the idea of what it means to be sustainable and healthy in the 21st Century. There’s no app for that. It requires hard work, novel ideas, good people and meaningful, rich and rewarding relationships. All of these are tended to – like a garden.

[/media-credit] Volunteer Olivia helping to rabbit proof the urban garden beds.