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Permaculture Guilds by Ben Haggard Like forests, prairies, and other natural landscapes, permaculture gardens are woven out of cooperative relationships among plants, animals, and fungi. Permaculture works with nature rather than fighting natural processes, and permaculture gardeners enlist a broad spectrum of allies in order to create healthy, living environments. One of the key strategies for creating a permaculture landscape is to use guilds. A guild is a community made up of plants, animals, and fungi, working cooperatively to support all its members. The idea in a permaculture garden is to create a forest of food, using many of the same functional relationships that occur in natural forests. Guilds are common in nature. For example, a spruce tree in the forest produces sugars in its growing tips. Squirrels eat these nutritious tips. The squirrels go down to the base of the tree to forage for mushrooms, which are high in protein. The squirrel leaves its feces, which now include sugars, proteins, and activated fungal spores, in the soil at the bottom of the tree. The fungus, activated and wrapped in a nutrient bundle, germinates in the soil. The fungus grows into the roots of the tree, where it makes nutrients in the soil available to the tree. The tree uses these nutrients to create more growing tips. And on it goes. The concept of guilds provides a different way to thinking about the natural world. Instead of seeing objects — “tree,” “mushroom,” or “squirrel” — we can see a web of interwoven relationships. Without the mushroom, the tree could not get the nutrients it needs. Without the squirrel, the tree couldn’t move sugars down to the muchroom to support it. Eventually, the tree would weaken and die. Likewise, the squirrel depends on the tree and the mushroom for its food. Given these bonds of mutual interdependence, the distinction between animals and plants becomes less meaningful. Where does one start and the other end? Heady stuff to think about, but useful. By looking at the connections between things instead of simply at the thing itself, it becomes possible to create landscapes that are truly sustainable. If, when planting a tree, I also introduce all the living elements that will assist this tree in leading a healthy and productive life, then I am eliminating extra work for myself. If I fail to include these relationships in my design, then I will have to make up the difference (by fertilizing, watering, pruning, etc.). Either I become a slave to the tree, or it suffers as a result of neglect. How does a gardener find practical applications for the concept of guilds? Look at fruit trees, for example. In most orchards and gardens, fruit trees are planted alone, often with grass underneath. Ironically, fruit trees and grasses are old enemies. They compete for the same nutrients and water. At best, they don’t support each other. I plant fruit trees in a rich mix of perennials, bulbs, shrubs, and annuals. A typical mix that I might use with an apple tree would include nitrogen fixers, insectary plants, bee plants, and other useful species. Nitrogen fixers are plants that form relationships with soil bacteria in their roots, allowing them to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form that can be used by plants. Having nitrogen fixers in your garden is like having your own, on-site biological fertilizer factory. For this reason, I am an avid collector of nitrogen fixing plants. Some of my favorites for use with apples include crown vetch, Siberian pea shrub, black locust, lupines, purple prairie clover, and garden peas and beans. All of these are legumes, or members of the pea family. I also use a variety of non-leguminous nitrogen fixers, especially the Eleagnus or autumn olives (many of which produce edible fruits). Because I live in the desert where nitrogen is scarce, many of the native trees and shrubs are nitrogen fixers. These include buffalo berry, apache plume, and antelope bitterbush. I often include natives in my orchard plantings. Once I have attended to the nitrogen needs of the tree, I can turn my attention to other important considerations. I always plant for the insects, especially the beneficial species that control pests. I want to be sure there are many different species living in my garden. One way to insure they come is to provide them with nectar flowers. Most beneficial insects do their best work while still babies. As adults they need nectar. I always plant plenty of umbel flowers for them. These include dill, fennel, parsley, yarrow, cilantro, carrot, Queen Anne’s lace, caraway, etc. Predatory wasps, lacewings, and ladybugs all take advantage of these nectar sources. I also plant for the bees. Bees are necessary for good pollination in the fruit trees. They also produce honey, propolis, bee pollen, and beeswax, so a healthy hive can significantly increase the productivity of my garden. However, apple blossoms only last a few weeks each year, not enough to support a hive. I try to plant blossoms that the bees can harvest from earliest spring to the end of fall. Winter croci and miniature iris open the season. Bee balm, beeplant, and fireweed are all edible herbs and provide abundant summer nectar. Locust trees, clover, and other legumes serve dual purpose as nitrogen fixers and bee forage. Fall raspberries and asters extend the season. When planning a garden, even if I don’t intend to keep a hive, I always think bees. It is also possible to plan for larger critters. Good ground cover and a little water encourages garden snakes, lizards, toads, and frogs — all excellent and self-motivated pest controllers. Birds can also be very beneficial, eating a large number of insects every day. Birds also concentrate and deposit high quality phosphate in their feces, another necessary fertilizer for the tree. Since they perch of tree branches, birds leave the fertilizer right where it most needed. Some fruit growers are wary of birds, but I find that if I have a large variety of their preferred wild fruits and berries growing next to the trees, they do minimal damage. My attitude has always been that there is plenty for everyone, especially if the animals in my garden are doing most of my work for me. Some permaculturists introduce poultry into their orchards as a way of cleaning up fallen fruit, eating insect pests, and scratching and manuring the soil. This is an excellent approach in a slightly larger garden, though it tak es a little care in the planning. A couple of chickens can demolish your entire lettuce crop in minutes if you don’t keep an eye on them. Another important type of relationship among plants is spatial. Under the tree is shady. On the southwest side of the tree, the ground will be sunnier, hotter, and drier, and on the northeast side the opposite conditions will be found. These varying conditions within a few feet of each other are referred to as “microclimates.” Different plants will do better in different microclimates. Here in the high desert, many plants appreciate the shade and protection that the fruit tree offers. I put currants, raspberries, flowers, and vegetables on the north and east sides. Under the tree I plant comfrey, wild onions, daylilies, and other ground covers. On the south and west, where the local hot, drying winds hit, I prefer to plant a sort of mini-windbreak of tough native shrubs facing the southwest. Tomatoes also like it hot and sunny, so they go on the south. All of the plants that I have mentioned work well where I live, at high elevation where the climate is dry but cold. I have created good functional guilds for the garden through trial and error, and a bit of common sense. In other parts of the country, local gardeners will want to experiment and trade ideas about what works for them. The basic principles are applicable anywhere: 1) Think of a plant or animal as part of a web or relationships. 2) Try to include beneficial relationships as part of your planting plan. 3) Use nitrogen fixing species to produce fertilizer. 4) Plant for pest control. 5) Use microclimates to your advantage. Happy guildmaking! Ben Haggard is a permaculture author, designer, and teacher based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.