What is a Tree Guild in a Permaculture Garden, and why have one?
If you’re looking for a way to get the maximum yield out of a small permaculture garden space, a tree guild permaculture design is a great way to start.
What is a Tree Guild?
A tree guild is a group of plants placed around a primary food producing species, such as an apple tree, with all of the plants working together to help each other thrive. Each plant has its own niche and its own function.
Just as there are seven layers of plants in a healthy forest, there are seven possible layers in a permaculture tree guild. Remember, in a Permaculture design, we seek to mimic nature as much as possible.
Here are the layers of a Permaculture food forest:
- The canopy tree; in the case of a suburban food forest, that would be a fruit or nut tree, say, an apple, plum, cherry, almond or pear. I’m leaving out the walnut tree here, because it’s allelopathic, meaning its roots emit substances that hinder the growth of many other species nearby.
- The understory, or dwarf tree, such as an elderberry. Think of using a large shrub here. A pineapple guava or goumi would be good choices too.
- Smaller shrubs like blueberry, haskap, or jostaberry comprise the third layer.
- This layer is non-woody herbaceous, like some flowers (cosmos, hellebore, daylily, penstemon, or lavender.
- Ground cover plants like strawberries make up the fifth layer, followed by the sixth layer, which is
- the rhizosphere. The rhizosphere would consist of onions, beets, parsnips, or other root vegetables. Mycelium is an important component, but that’s a topic for a book! Paul Stamets writes about it beautifully in his book, Mycelium Running (get it here: https://fungi.com/search?q=Mycelium+Running&options%5Bprefix%5D=last)
- The seventh layer is the vine. You can plant a kiwi, grape, or passion fruit vine near your tree, which in turn will support the vine.
You can also buy mycorrhizal powder to sprinkle onto your soil. Some of it will thrive in the soil and contribute to the health of your plants. It is miraculous stuff. Here’s one place where you can buy it: Mycorrhizal Inoculants for Sale – Grow Organic
When you plant a tree guild, you’ll get a lot more produce from the space.
Imagine an apple tree surrounded by blueberries, dill, walking onions, currants, artichokes, and strawberries! That’s a lot more produce from the area than just apples.
But there’s more to a tree guild than just forest layers; each plant must have a function, so that the whole system is healthier and more resilient.
Stay tuned for the functions of each type of plant in the tree guild!
A medlar tree guild
A medlar tree guild: the tree is surrounded by pest repellents (southern wood and chives), pollinator plants (oregano, penstemon, chives, artichokes), bio-accumulator plants (dandelion, comfrey), and mulch maker plants (comfrey, day lily)
Artichoke flower
Artichokes are a favorite of pollinators. Let a few of them flower!
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