Hardscaping is one of the biggest unlocks in edible landscaping—and one of the easiest places to get burned if you don’t know what you’re doing.

In this Pro Talk, we’re sitting down with Gabriel Hanh, project installation manager for Custom Foodscapes, to walk through the real-world hardscape work behind foodscaping projects.

This is a true show-and-tell.

We’ll be pulling up photos and talking through actual installs—stepping stone paths, garden edging, patios, retaining walls—and breaking down exactly how they came together in the field.

But more importantly, we’ll get into the how:
Where to start
What materials to use (and when)
How to think about elevation and layout
What to double-check before you ever break ground

And we’re not just showing the wins.

We’ll also share the mistakes—the things we got wrong, the lessons we learned the hard way, and the details that actually make or break a project.

If you’re trying to bring hardscaping into your foodscaping work—or just want to do it with more confidence and precision—this one’s going to give you a real, on-the-ground look at what it takes.

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 the Custom Foodscapes Water Systems Manager, Gabriel oversees design and implementation of water management and retention systems.