Looking for palettes for groups of species that work together interdependently to inspire your design of guilds (plant communities) for a food forest?
Featured guilds:
- eat your ornamentals
- native bounty
- urban orchard (apple & pear)
- nature's pharmacy
- medieval potager
- asian cooking herbal
- edible fence
- native nuts (black walnut, butternut, shagbark or shellbark hickory, chestnut or oak)
In Permaculture: A Designers Manual Bill Mollison says that "We ourselves are part of a guild of species that lie within and without our bodies. Aboriginal peoples and the Ayurvedic practitioners of ancient India have names for such guilds, or beings made up (as we are) of two or more species forming one organism. Most of nature is composed of groups of species working interdependently."
Guilding is a permaculture technique that learns from and works with the relationships in nature, especially in a forest system.
Unlike monocultures – a field of corn, a traditional apple orchard or a grass lawn – guilds are polycultures of diverse plants, insects and animals that support each other in a mini ecosystem. They’re designed around a primary food producing species (such as an apple tree) along with diverse, multi-functional support species to maximize the health and productivity of the guild. They produce a wide variety of useful products such as food, medicine, fibre, wood and dye.
By considering the whole plant community, – placing plants carefully in relation to each other in a way that facilitates interconnection and support rather than competition (for example, plants with different root systems such as shallow vs tap roots)
- Nitrogen fixing plants, along with species that supply phosphorus, potassium, calcium and other minerals, fertilize food producing plants
- Soil food web recycles plant debris to build healthy, moisture retentive soil
- Insectary plants attract beneficial predatory insects such as ladybugs, lacewings and predatory wasps as well as pollinators such as native bees that increase fruit and vegetable yield
- Strongly aromatic plants such as oregano, garlic, thyme and yarrow confuse pests, preventing them from discovering the plants they like to eat
- Diversity attracts a wide variety of bacteria, fungi, insects and birds to increase system health
- Dense layer of herbaceous and groundcover plants suppress unwanted species and protect the soil