By Karen Ganey
Planting guilds around your fruit or nut tree is best done in the early years of the trees growth, before it’s surface roots take over. Choose from the many species to enlighten the colors, smells, tastes, and textures for the enjoyment of the pollinators, soil dwellers and gardener alike.
Considerations for your guild could include
Dynamic Accumulators: bring sub surface minerals to plants with shallow roots
Comfrey, horseradish, borage, chamomile, chives, lemon balm, peppermint, salad burnet
Flowers for cutting, drying, color & tea:
Anise hyssop, calendula, borage, bee balm, zinnia, straw flowers, status
Beneficial’s for Insects:
Allysum, alfalfa, anise hyssop, buckwheat, clover, dill, fennel, feverfew, lemon balm, lobelia, nasturtium, parsley, spearmint, yarrow
Medicine and Tea:
Artemisia, echinacea,chamomile, lavender, lemon balm, mallow, yarrow,
Nitrogen fixers:
Clover, columbine, lupine, alfalfa, fava beans, Siberian pea shrub
Edible ground covers and vines:
Groundnuts, Jerusalem artichokes, strawberries, sorrel, squash
*References:
The Pruning Book; Lee Reich
The Holistic Orchardist, Michael Phillips
Gaias’s Garden, Toby Hemenway
