If you are growing fruit trees in your garden, surrounding them with a fruit tree guild is a wonderful idea. But if you are new to gardening, this concept can sometimes be a little confusing at first.
Trying to design a fruit tree guild and tackle fruit tree guild creation can feel a little overwhelming. These ideas and tips may help.
What is a Fruit Tree Guild?
First things first, if you are not familiar with the concept of fruit tree guilds:
A fruit tree guild is a collection of species that aid a fruit tree in different ways. These plant (and animal and fungal) species work together to create a functioning ecosystem like that found naturally in the wild.
Unlike in a wild system, however, the plants in a guild are carefully selected, and often with an eye to meeting human needs, as well as those of the fruit tree and other elements in the system. As well as being beneficial to the tree, a guild also helps you, as the gardener, and can provide further yields to help you make the most of your space.
Key Elements in a Fruit Tree Guild
When trying to create a fruit tree guild, it can be beneficial to think first about how you can combine plants. The key elements of a fruit tree guild may include other smaller trees, shrubs, climbers, and a wide range of herbaceous plants, including taller species and ground covers.
We should also remember that a guild does not end at the soil level, but also extends into the vitally crucial rhizosphere below the ground. Soil health is one of the most important things in any garden system, and fruit tree guilds are designed to ensure good soil health – providing the right nutrients and ensuring that they are maintained in largely self-reliant systems over time.
It is also important to remember that we don’t just rely on plants to create thriving ecosystems and healthy fruit trees. Wildlife is important too. And we can also consider the role we ourselves might play in the ongoing function of the system, as gardeners.
Choosing Plants for a Fruit Tree Guild
Understanding the key elements in a guild is just the beginning. To begin to choose plants for a beneficial fruit tree guild, we need to delve a little deeper and think about the different functions that members of a fruit tree guild should fulfil.
The plants in a fruit tree guild should be carefully chosen, with the key goal of increasing the number of beneficial interactions, without overly increasing the competition between species. We must ensure, especially, that the plants we choose will not be too competitive for nutrients and resources with the fruit tree at the heart of the guild.
Biodiversity is key – we need as many different plants as possible. But we cannot simply introduce any plants. We must choose them carefully – looking at their root systems, nutritional needs, growth habits etc.. to determine whether or not they will be good neighbours for the fruit tree in question.
When choosing plants for a fruit tree guild, there is a lot to consider. It is important to note that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Lists of guild plants for one specific location will not necessarily translate well to your own particular garden. Considering the properties of native plants, and considering locally native plant species for your design, can often be the best place to begin when looking for plants to include in a fruit tree guild where you live.
Functions of a Fruit Tree Guild
It can be helpful to consider the different functions that guild plants might provide. By analysing these functions, alongside the properties of certain plants, you can begin to match the right plants to the needs of the system. You can find plants to fill specific niches within the ecosystem.
The primary functions of plants within a fruit tree guild are:
- Improving local environmental conditions. (By providing shade, or covering bare soil to reduce moisture loss and suppress weeds or grass growth, for example.)
- Returning nutrients to the system. (Plants may return nutrients to the system by dropping leaves in winter, or dying back. They may grow quickly and provide materials to chop and drop as mulch. These plants help complete nature’s cycles and play a role in maintaining fertility in the system over time. )
- Adding nutrients to the system. (Some plants don’t just recycle nutrients but also add them to the system or allow them to be gathered from places not accessible by the fruit tree or other plants. These include nitrogen fixers, which take nitrogen from the air in symbiosis with bacteria in their roots. And also those plants with deep roots which allow them to access and draw up nutrients from deeper soil levels.
- Attracting pollinators and other beneficial wildlife. (Flowering plants which attract pollinators make sure that fruit trees are pollinated successfully. Attracting other wildlife, predatory insect species for example, helps keep pest species at bay and the ecosystem in balance.)
- Repelling, confusing or distracting pests. (Aromatic herbs and alliums, for example, have a strong smell that may keep pest species away from your fruit trees, keeping them strong and healthy.
By thinking about which plants might fulfil these key roles can help us begin to form a design for fruit tree guild planting.
Sizing and Shaping a Fruit Tree Guild
A fruit tree guild will often stretch to the drip line of a tree. But it can be much larger, and expand over a greater area. Many will create fruit tree guilds that are roughly circular in shape. But it is important to understand that fruit tree guilds can be created in many different shapes and sizes.
As long as you think about how the plants interact within the planting scheme, and choose the right plants for the right locations, you can create, for example, linear fruit tree guilds (biodiverse hedgerow type schemes), or use your imagination to incorporate a fruit tree into larger garden designs, such as forest gardens.
These are just some things for beginners to think about when creating a fruit tree guild for a garden. The ideas and tips above should help you begin to come up with the perfect scheme for you, your fruit tree, and where you live.
Elizabeth Waddington is a writer and green living consultant living in Scotland. Permaculture and sustainability are at the heart of everything she does, from designing gardens and farms around the world, to inspiring and facilitating positive change for small companies and individuals.
She also works on her own property, where she grows fruit and vegetables, keeps chickens and is working on the eco-renovation of an old stone barn.
To get in touch, visit https://ewspconsultancy.com.