Living In The Past, But For The Future

Formal Gardens, Urban Farm, Robots, Automation, Animals, Renewable Energy and More!

Mezzacello Urban Farm Began as a backyard project and quickly expanded to an applied STEM Learning Lab and Urban Farm Camp and Workshop Experience Center. Mezzacello became a non-profit in 2021 and has since been building on the original premise of the name:

Thomas Jefferson’s “Monticello” concept but with more science, technology, engineering, math, as well as art, writing, and beauty.

Part Park and Formal Gardens.

Even the formal gardens at Mezzacello Urban Farm are sustainable and leverage modern technology and age old practices.

Each bed is a forest floor loaded with decaying biomass and water swales that allow the formal gardens to draw water for themselves. These are never watered. All plants are propagated onsite or have been donated by friends or neighbors.

The gardens at Mezzacello Urban Farm are more than pretty: They are an integrated part of the seven enclosed and interdependent ecosystems that comprise the grounds at Mezzacello.

More than just a pretty place. They provide much-needed biomass for other systems on the farm, and they are a gift we share with our neighborhood. Did we mention Mezzacello Urban Farm is in Downtown Columbus?

Part Urban Garden and Applied STEM Learning Lab.

The western half of the grounds at Mezzacello Urban Farm are dedicated to better helping urban kids, adults, families, and communities better understand farming, soil regeneration, composting, animal and livestock integration and care, bioengineering, biology, biochemistry, and renewable energy strategies.

Mezzacello Urban Farm has five dedicated labs for animal husbandry and livestock care, power generation and conservation, bioengineering, biotech, and a four season biodome for plant propagation.

Mezzacello Urban Farm offers a wide array of summer camps, one-day workshops, family workshops, tours, and corporate team-building events.

Part of downtown Columbus, OH.

The grounds and the 1868 Italianate brick house of Mezzacello Urban Farm were originally outside the city of Columbus. Over the last 156 the city has ground out, up, and around our little Urban Farm.

Today the site of Mezzacello Urban Farm is actually three plots of land in downtown Columbus. We are located between downtown Columbus, King-Lincoln/ Bronzeville District, Olde Towne East, and The Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. One plot is our house and the two southern plots are the farm. And all of this 20 blocks from the Ohio Statehouse!

In total, Mezzacello Urban Farm is 23m x 49m = 1,127 square meters (75’ x 150’ = 938 square yards). Not a lot of space, but truly a lot going on!

Did We Mention We Were a Non-Profit?

Mezzacello Urban Farm is a non-profit educational entity. To date we have hosted 38 camps (9 more coming online this year) and 27 workshops (8 more coming online). That’s 1000s of kids who have had the chance to experience real-world problem solving, applied STEM hands-on experiences, and learning about nature, gardening, animals and themselves.

Mezzacello Urban Farm also works with the UN and the Global Innovation Field Trip project hosting webinars to audiences around the world. The focus is on sustainability, technology, design thinking, and meeting the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals locally.

Be a part of this mission!

Consider donating to Mezzacello Urban Farm or becoming a sponsor today!

  • Our best work from th previous year!
    [View our 2023 Annual Report Here]

  • A big shout out to our Partners:

    PAST Foundation
    Columbus Foundation
    City of Columbus
    Columbus Parks and Rec
    The Garden Conservatory
    Franklin Park Conservatory
    Battelle

  • Awards and Accolades here

There is still time to register and donate to our hands on STEM Funraiser!

Mezzacello Urban Farm is a non-profit educational entity and your donations are safe with us. Every year we host an open house fundraiser to the general public. Tickets are $25 and all proceeds go to scholarships for marginalized, and financial needs students who might not be able to cover the $50 fee for attending Mezzacello camps and events.

I remember being a kid whose family was without the means to allow me to attend camps like this. I do not want to live in a world where that still happens. Help me help others. Thanks to a generous grant from Columbus City Parks and Recreation, Ohio EPA, and Battelle most camps are covered. But there is a registration cost. Help us out, OK?