Composing a guild, step by step

What to understand before starting

• Know the aspect and soil type of the spot (see the 'Understand your soil' section).
• Have chosen the central plant and checked it is not allelopathic to its neighbours (under a black walnut, for example, juglone can slow sensitive plants).
• Accept a phase of observation: a guild is refined over several seasons.

Detailed steps

1. Step 1

   1. Choose the central plant

   It is the star: a fruit tree (apple, pear, hazel), a hungry vegetable (tomato) or a vigorous ground cover (squash, strawberry). Everything else is built around it, according to its adult size, its shade and its needs.

2. Step 2

   2. Add a nitrogen fixer

   A legume fixes nitrogen from the air thanks to the Rhizobium bacteria on its roots (FAO). White clover around trees (keeping the foot of young trees mulched), climbing bean in the vegetable bed: part of that nitrogen returns to the soil, mostly when the legume is mown and its residues left in place.

3. Step 3

   3. Add a biomass plant

   Comfrey produces plenty of potassium-rich leaves, cut several times a season to mulch the base of trees or to make a liquid feed (RHS; Lawrence D. Hills, Comfrey, 1976). The idea that it lifts minerals from deep layers (a 'dynamic accumulator') remains to be demonstrated, and its leaf content depends on the soil it grows in (Tyler and Zarro, Cornell Small Farms, 2022). See this mulch as a helping hand, not as a complete fertilisation.

4. Step 4

   4. Draw in pollinators

   Nectar-rich flowers (borage, phacelia) feed bees and bumblebees, a useful support for fruit trees and cucurbits, whose fruit set depends on insects.

5. Step 5

   5. Protect with aromatics

   Strong-smelling plants (garlic, chives, tansy) or traps (nasturtium) confuse pests. Many of these effects belong to permaculture tradition more than to controlled trials: adopt them as helping hands while staying attentive to the real result.

6. Step 6

   6. Cover the soil

   A ground cover (thyme, strawberry, spinach early in the season) keeps moisture in, limits weeds and shelters the soil fauna. Better to avoid bare soil: in a guild, every space is planted or mulched.

7. Step 7

   7. Observe and adjust

   Plant in stages (the central plant first, then the companions), observe over one or two seasons, and replace whatever does not thrive with another plant of the same role. A guild is never fixed: it is a dialogue with the place.

Concrete examples

• The Three Sisters, maize (stake), bean (nitrogen), squash (ground cover): the textbook guild, on a single mound.
• Apple tree guild, the tree, shrubs (redcurrant, blackcurrant), comfrey, clover, aromatics and a ground cover: a small layered food orchard.
• Pear tree guild, same logic as the apple (two pome-bearing rose-family trees), adapting spacing and rootstock.
• Tomato guild, basil, French marigold, nasturtium, borage: protection and pollination for the summer vegetable bed.
• Strawberry guild, garlic, onion, borage, spinach: a mini-system for edges and containers.
• Squash guild, a Three Sisters variant, centred on cucurbit pollination.
• Hazel guild, the backbone of a small edible forest garden.
• The detail of each guild (plant by plant) is gathered further down, in the 'Classic guilds' section of the Guides page.

What is the difference between a guild and companion planting?

Companion planting pairs two plants (carrot and leek, for example). A guild goes further: it is a complete little ecosystem organised around a central plant, with several functional roles.

Is a guild only for trees?

No. The central plant can be a vegetable (tomato) or a ground cover (squash, strawberry). Tree guilds are the best known because the tree structures the space for a long time.

Are the associations scientifically proven?

Partly. Nitrogen fixation by legumes and the importance of pollinators are firmly established. Other ideas (repellent effects, the 'dynamic accumulator') belong mainly to permaculture tradition: useful as guides, to be tested in the field.