funny

Not All Calcium is the Same

Today was the first day of spring that I have to do planting maintenance at Mezzacello. One of my primary tasks was making sure both the animal, aquatic, and botanical species that we grow here have appropriate levels of the…

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.

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 to be true….

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

Parterre Gardens, Guerrilla Gardens

In the ongoing mythology of Mezzacello the idea of a DMZ between “North and South Korea” i.e. the pretty and plentiful gardens has been a sacred one. We both of us decided we needed a neutral ground to rest and…

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

Being a Renaissance Smurf

Y’all remember the Smurfs? When I was in middle school every Saturday morning I would watch “The Smurfs”. I loved the message of community and resourcefulness. The singular villain, Gargamel, was a stand in for the cruel world and later on…

The Gift of the Magi

Two people share a combined passion but come at it from completely different angles, it can be interesting. So we laugh and compromise.

The Back of my BMW
The back of my BMW…

The Renfield House

The origin story of our 1868 house and the coffin box that still resides in the attic of the original builder of the house at Mezzacello.

The Renfield Box in our dusty forgotten attic.