Guild Planting: Fostering Teamwork in Your Garden

Guild planting is similar to companion planting (pairing plants for mutual benefits), but has some distinct differences that we'll look at.

Guild Planting vs. Companion Planting

Think of companion planting as pairings - 2 plants chosen for symbiotic benefit.

Guild planting is more like a coalition or team of plants which all harmonize in a symbiotic relationship as well.

In guild planting, the multi-layered plant community usually revolves around a central tree or a key crop species as the cornerstone or anchor.

Guild Planting vs. Syntropic Agroforestry

Guild planting is also very closely related to syntropic food forests. Let's look at where these two overlap, and how they differ:

This article is currently under construction. Please check back soon for our full explanation!

Guild Planting vs Anchor Plants

Anchor plants are a concept from landscaping, where larger plants are chosen as "anchors" - providing points of interest, size, shape, color, or texture to a landscape.

While some thought may be put into symbiotic affects from groupings around anchor plants, the focus is primarily visual appeal.

With guild planting, we may well also look at aesthetics, but it's generally further down the list of considerations as compared to nutrient cycling, pest repelling, soil remediation, and other more practical concerns.

In other words, the anchor plant concept focuses primarily on visual harmony, while guild planting focuses primarily on ecological harmony.

Guild planting also typically revolves more around edible plants that traditional landscaping does, which may further distinguish the anchor plant concep from guild planting.

Guild Examples

The best way to understand guild planting is to take a look at a bunch of examples.

We'll go over a number of common plant guilds, and different example pairings for each that can create a symbiotic effect.

We'll also discuss why each example works, and the interplay between the different species.

Since guild planting most-commonly revolves around trees (though not necessarily!) we're looking at tree guild examples first:

This article is currently under construction. Please check back soon for our full guild planting lists!