Beyond Companion Planting: Your Guide to Understanding, Designing, and Growing Ecological Plant Guilds in Any Climate

If you’ve ever wanted to increase the stability and diversity of your garden, homestead, or farm, but didn’t know where to start, then this is the book for you.

Plant guilds are groups of species we can interplant intelligently so that the individual components work together to exchange nutrients, attract pollinators, deter pests and disease, and increase productivity. This book covers what you need to know about plant guilds and how to design and grow them successfully wherever you are. In using this simple technique, you can reduce maintenance needs (that means less weeding or chemical use), improve the strength of individual plants, focus more on perennial growth, and ultimately increase the chances for your plants to thrive and grow into edible abundance.

Based strongly on the permaculture concept of plant guilds, these 7 jam-packed and extensively researched chapters draw on a plethora of sources and real-life examples to detail, in plain language, the ecological approach of creating symbiotic growing systems that mimick nature. The methods summarized here (applicable especially for edible and fruit tree guilds) are tried and true by gardeners and permaculture designers throughout the world.

Anyone, anywhere can grow a plant guild.

The bonus chapter, Working with Climate and Biome, gives any reader the tools to identify his or her regional biome. It then discusses how to apply basic climate tendencies and other landform features to guild gardening.

Gardening with plant guilds takes companion planting to the next level. Not only are you placing companion plants close together for maximum effect, but you’re also learning to grow what’s basically a mini-ecosystem that contributes to your area’s biodiversity and stability.

In this book you will learn:

• What is permaculture and how it relates to plant guilds


• Why plant guilds are an effective ecological approach


• How to identify the layers of a food forest or plant guild and which plants go where


• Specific functions of plant guilds with examples (ie. attracting insects, building the soil)


• How to identify your biome anywhere on earth

You will also get to see:

• Tips from experts on plant species (including plant lists) for specific climates


• Information on identifying and working with native plant species


• Three primary climate tendencies, their particularities, approaches, and example plants


• How to design a guild for your climate


• Ample tips, research, and advice from experts in the field


• What to consider before planting and what to plant first


• Actual example plant guilds for different climates

Whether you are new to ecological design and permaculture or you simply want to brush up on creating guilds, this book will open the possibilities for thriving plant systems on your property no matter where you live. So take notes, observe your local vegetation, and get started!

To future readers, PLEASE NOTE that this is not your typical step-by-step, how-to manual. It is a detailed walkthrough of how to use the technique to its maximum potential while understanding how it works. The author amasses a variety of many resources into this small (approx. 15000 word) text in order to make the book a thorough and accessible one-stop shop for readers anywhere in the world (in any climate). You may need to take notes or wish to go into further specifics for your location, or to research more out of interest, but you'll know where to look and why, and you'll have a deeper understanding of the technique. There is an updated version available for buyers from before April 3 at 1pm EST (Please see the Manage Your Kindle page, www.amazon.com/gp/digital/fiona/manage)

Click on the orange "Buy Now" button at the top to download your copy today!