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Designing a productive guild

Plant communities that feed each other so you don't have to feed them.

Growing·Ecology
  1. 01
    A diverse garden bed with vegetables and flowers growing together
    Growing№ 0954 min

    Companion Planting Guide

    Which plants grow well together, which fight, and how to design beds that suppress pests and feed each other.

  2. 02
    Corn stalks with bean vines climbing them and squash spreading below in a traditional mound planting
    Growing№ 4884 min

    The Three Sisters: Corn, Beans, and Squash

    Three plants, one mound. Corn for height, beans for nitrogen, squash for cover. A thousand years of Haudenosaunee farming distilled into a guild that still works.

  3. 03
    A diverse mixed planting of vegetables, herbs, and flowers growing together in a productive polyculture bed
    Growing№ 3633 min

    Polyculture: Diversity as Pest Control

    Mixed plantings beat monocultures on pests, soil, and resilience. Here is how to design diverse beds that actually work.

  4. 04
    An apple tree surrounded by diverse companion plantings including clover, comfrey, and flowering herbs
    Ecology№ 1785 min

    Fruit Tree Guilds: Self-Fertilising Systems

    Design plantings around a fruit tree so nitrogen fixers, dynamic accumulators, ground covers, and pest confusers feed the system and reduce inputs every year.

  5. 05
    Garden beds showing lettuce at different growth stages from seedlings to mature heads
    Growing№ 4703 min

    Succession Planting: Continuous Harvest All Season

    Stagger sowings every two to three weeks and the harvest stops being a glut. It becomes a conveyor belt.

  6. 06
    A mature fruit tree laden with apples surrounded by established berry bushes and perennial herbs
    Growing№ 3503 min

    Perennials First: Plant Once, Harvest for Decades

    Why the smartest long-term investment in any garden or homestead is to prioritise fruit trees, berry bushes, and perennial crops that compound their productivity year after year.

  7. 07
    A mature food forest with fruit trees, berry bushes, and ground cover plants
    Growing№ 1704 min

    Designing a Food Forest

    How to stack seven layers of edible woodland that feeds you for decades while slowly shedding the chores of an annual garden.

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