A guild stacks species into mutually beneficial relationships — mimicking the layered structure of a forest.
Plant Guilds
A guild is a community of plants (and sometimes animals) that support each other — mimicking the layered structure of a forest. Rather than rows of single crops competing with weeds, a guild stacks species into mutually beneficial relationships.
The Seven Layers of a Forest Garden
- Canopy: Large fruit and nut trees — apple, walnut, oak. The framework layer.
- Sub-canopy: Dwarf fruit trees, elder, hazel. Grows in the dappled shade of the canopy.
- Shrub: Berries — currant, gooseberry, saskatoon. Highly productive in Zone 2.
- Herbaceous: Perennial vegetables and herbs — comfrey, yarrow, lovage, mint, horseradish.
- Ground cover: Living mulch — clover, thyme, strawberry. Suppresses weeds, feeds soil.
- Root: Underground crops — burdock, skirret, parsnip. Breaking compaction and cycling minerals.
- Climbers & vines: Hardy kiwi, hops, climbing beans — using vertical space the other layers miss.
Spotlight: Comfrey
Comfrey deserves special mention in any temperate permaculture system. Its deep taproot mines subsoil minerals (especially calcium and potassium), its leaves decompose rapidly into a potassium-rich mulch, it provides abundant insect forage, and it accumulates biomass fast enough to use as a "chop and drop" green manure three to five times per season.
The Three Sisters
The classic Three Sisters — corn, beans, and squash — is a 5,000-year-old guild. Corn provides a climbing pole for beans; beans fix atmospheric nitrogen for corn; squash shades the soil to retain moisture and suppress weeds. Three plants, dozens of relationships.
For a deeper, soil-focused treatment of perennial polycultures — including BC-hardy nitrogen fixers, dynamic accumulators, chop-and-drop, and hugelkultur — see Perennial Systems in the Living Soil Course.