about

About Custom Foodscaping

We transform ordinary spaces into

beautiful, food-producing landscapes.

Custom Foodscaping provides consultation, design, and installation services to realize your edible landscaping, farm and garden or permaculture goals.

We specialize in raised bed vegetable gardens, food forests, orchards, herb gardens, culinary gardens and profitable vegetable farms. We love to work with residential clients as well as institutions including schools, universities, hospitals, community centers and restaurants.

Meet Our Team

Matt Lebon

OWNER

Matt is most passionate about creating magical food moments. He is driven by the belief that food connects us all. By cultivating food crops with a reverence for Mother Earth he believes we can begin to heal our bodies and the land. Matt got his start with farming as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay, where he was initially bit by the gardening bug. He went on to study ecological design and work on several farms. For five seasons Matt worked at the EarthDance Organic Farm School until he left his role of farm manager in 2017. Now with Custom Foodscaping, Matt is a practitioner and designer of edible landscapes and gardens.

Hayley Young

Maintenance Lead + Foodscaper

Hayley exudes enthusiasm when it comes to plants and plant-based eating. Working in specialty coffee for several years sparked Hayley’s interest in understanding where food comes from as well as the importance of farming conditions. She is passionate about connecting with food at the source and sharing bounty with others. Her background in art, landscaping, and carpentry led her to Custom Foodscaping, where Hayley spends much of her time building and installing garden beds in addition to maintenance work for client’s edible landscapes.

permaculture water management water catchment — photo: Mackenzie Leek

Gabriel Hahn

Water Systems Manager

Gabriel loves connecting himself and others to the innumerable joys and wonders brought to us by the living world, and is captivated by moving water and everything that grows. He began working in organic vegetable production in 2007 and soon found himself living on permaculture farms in Ecuador and Peru, catalyzing a passion to use water responsibly, localize the food system, and live more communally with people and land. In 2012, Gabriel started and managed Seeds of Hope Farm in Spanish Lake, MO, where for 5 years he honed a focus on increased access to and education around local, healthy food. Looking to expand his working knowledge of plants and integrated living systems, he then spent two years at Brambleberry Farm in Southern Indiana. As Water Systems Manager, Gabriel oversees design and implementation of water management and retention systems.

Jessica Gazzola

MARKETING & ADMIN MANaGER

Jessica found grounding in sun, soil, and food as a young mother. Her past tracks through spiritual communities, but ordinary life in a blended family and tending relationships with backyard chickens and fruit trees illuminated her path. She loves her community orchard (The Orchard on Virginia) where she grows pawpaws, serviceberries, community, and stories. Jessica is thrilled that these tendrils of passion have a place to grow with Custom Foodscaping, supporting the foodscaping movement and sharing stories of everyday magic in the garden. She also likes to share her gluten-free baking.

Lindsay Wolff

OPERATIONS manager, The FOODSCAPER

Lindsay oversees our sister company, The Foodscaper, an educational platform for professional edible landscapers. She spends most of her free time rehabbing a 1918 farmhouse outside of St. Louis where she and her husband Nate love to host community events, including a recent permaculture design certification course.

Clayton Darnell

Installation + Maintenance Crew

Clayton is a lover of nature, food sovereignty, and building closer relationships with the natural world. For the past eight years - from working traditional landscaping, to growing food for a retreat center, and going through a horticulture program - Clayton has grown a deeper love and awareness to plant care and the power of growing your own food.

Steven Franz

Foodscaper

Steven was a student at EarthDance Farm School in 2015, where Matt managed and taught before starting Custom Foodscaping. After attending a permaculture course, his excitement for learning about farming-done-different landed a 2-year intensive apprenticeship in New Mexico. There, more hands-on lessons in homesteading, food production, erosion mitigation and land stewardship solidified a fondness for the spaces where people connect with the Earth and one another.

Cat Dunsford

Foodscaper

Cat began pursuing regenerative consciousness and skills in 2017. Inspired by permaculture, she started her journey with organic farming. Her passions lie in regenerative systems - from land to community.

She strives to be a positive presence in the world and is always eager to share learning and knowledge with others. Her goal is to highlight that everything is connected - from people to plants. She is excited to be a member of the CF band and to help folks build and connect with edible plants and nature!

Dane Intagliata

foodscaper

Dane's first experience with farming was as an apprentice at Earthdance farm in 2017. At the end of the apprenticeship, he moved to the Big Island of Hawaii where he worked on a plethora of farms. He supported a variety of operations, ranging from tropical fruit, to coffee, to cacao. After a few years he found himself studying tropical agroforestry with a mentor in the field, and eventually helped to complete a first round of curriculum on the topic. The curriculum project included designing and installing a food forest which lives on to this day. Dane is interested in all things permaculture, organic farming, agroforestry, and regenerative living. He recently completed his permaculture design certificate from Oregon State University - a long-time goal.

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