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Home Show to spotlight edible-landscapes creator Zachary Wahle’s Edible Attractive Terrains (EAT) is a landscaping company that designs, plants and harvests home gardens with aesthetics in mind. “I help people grow food on their own property and I help people grow edible gardens and landscapes,” Wahle said. Wahle’s company will be among the more than 350 home and garden improvement companies on hand at the 2007 Marin Home Show and Benefit Jazz Fest on June 2 and 3 at the Marin Center Exhibit Hall and Fairgrounds. Wahle, 27, will show off what’s called a food forest at the Home Show. “It’s a type of landscaping where most things, if not everything are edible,” Wahle said. “There are different canopies and different layers, from trees down to roots.” Wahle has been building these and various other types of sustainable and eco-friendly landscapes for clients for three years, at first supplementing his family’s income with the business part time while he finished his master’s in ecological agriculture from New College of California in Santa Rosa. Then, this past spring, after finishing school and giving up his part-time teaching job in Richmond, Wahle made EAT a full-time venture, capitalizing on Marin County residents’ ever-growing interest in all things green. “I didn’t want to be a farmer and I thought I had the potential to turn this into a business,” Wahle said. “It was a good time in this day and age in Marin County to do this. I’m not aware of anyone else doing this full time in the county.” Wahle said his services aren’t any more expensive than any other landscaper, but that some people might perceive his gardens as a luxury. “It’s more involved than having a guy show up to mow the yard and then blow it away,” Wahle said. “I don’t own a mower or a leaf blower and I’m very happy about that.” Wahle hopes to show people at the Marin Home Show that food gardens can be attractive. “People don’t have to have a few tomatoes and basil plants, nor do they have to have just good-looking trees,” Wahle said. “I like to see native landscapes. I think they’re really beautiful. Even a farm, though, can be beautiful. There’s no need to have the two philosophies separated. People can create an all-inclusive landscape.” Wahle, who grew up in Woodacre, Fairfax and San Anselmo, said he is currently designing and installing a project for a client on a 3-acre site. “I’m redoing the whole landscape and it’s designed so the plants reinforce one another,” Wahle said. “I try to stick with things that are native, or at least non-invasive. A large part of the client’s land is near open space, so deer and other critters come in and we’ve made that area fit the local ecology so that it doesn’t deter the animals. Then they have their back yard fenced off and there will be some vegetable and fruit crops.” Wahle also works on much smaller projects, working to create smaller 4-by-8-foot raised gardens for some clients. The Sir Francis Drake High School graduate, now married with a young daughter, said he is looking forward to the Marin Home Show. Visitors to the EAT exhibit at the Home Show will receive free harvest tastings and small plants while supplies last. ON THE CALENDAR What: 2007 Marin Home Show When: June 2 and 3 Where: Marin Center Exhibit Hall and Fairgrounds, Avenue of the Flags Marin Center, San Rafael For more information about the Marin Home Show, call 472-3500 or visit marinhomeshow.com. For more information about Edible Attractive Terrains, call Zachary Wahle at (415)342-5857 or visit eatgardens.com Andy Jones can be contacted at ajones@marinscope.com. |
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The Marin Home Show in San Rafael will include a landscape exhibit featuring “Edible Attractive Terrains” designed by Zachary Wahle of Fairfax. Wahle is a landscaper who designs, plants and harvests sustainable gardens for homeowners. (Photos courtesy of Zachary Wahle) |
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