Are plant guilds desirable to use in a permaculture-style garden?

is it possible to design a permaculture garden by using plant guilds? how does the size of the plot affect the decision? what are the advantages and disadvantages?








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Are plant guilds desirable to use in a permaculture-style garden?
PERMACULTURE ANSWER





Yes it is a guide line for bio diversity planting


Permaculture gardens should be collections of guilds into niches.





as many as 8 or more plants planted with the same time frame in mind





,tall trees such as coconut palms and mangos.


guanñabana or papapya underneath them(depending the specie of papapya ,Maradol is a pigmy papapya,and comes a level lower) ,


Banana to follow ,vines on the coconuts and the mango like vanilla ,


Sugar can beneath that,


Maybe some lines of corn (half shade corn)or bushes with fruits


Then things from half to one meter .pine apple or articoke


Pumpkins or other ground cover plants on the floor


Some low herbs and


Root plants like carrots depending the climate





Each place has its own species, this is just a tropical example


The whole resulting in a rough pyramid of plants.





There are no disadvantages ,the soil ends up healthy


and there are few pests.





The only possible disadvantage is small amounts of produce but of a great diversity


making the idea not so comercial


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The Mexican Indigenous peoples of Oaxaca plant in a consecative time frame which is a traditional style ,





First they plant Agave(Tequila cactus) ,in lines ,


with a corn that is planted singular instead of the usual 3 seeds to a hole in between.,and the stem is stronger


when the corn has reached a certain hight they follow this up with a small climbing bean ,that utilizes the corn stem


and pumpkins and herbs are planted as ground cover ,


that will not be ripe untill well after , first the beans then the corn has been harvested


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Guilds are models of compatibility merging with the concept of Companion planting





So bio diversity is the overall concept that is streamlined into companion planting (plants that are physically and chemically compateble ,)





And guilds is how we end up with stylized grouping to act as a guideline for the farmers.





Consisting of usually permanent plants or trees to provide shelter from the wind (vertical coverage )to act as niches,


or shade from the sun (high crowns)or structural (poles)


mixed with seasonals like ,vegetables or other utility plants .


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you can do a heck of a lot on less than half an acre


the minimum size is a circle of a diameter of 30 metres .





NICHES


Ideally because you want part of it as trees to provide a canopy that locks in the Humidity,as well as to bring shade and cool ness to part of the garden .





The perimetre should be a wall of some sort like bamboo or bushes


to have a niche effect and to further lock in humidity as well as temperature .


a tightly niched garden can differ by as much as ten degrees with the outside


going in both directions


my Garden in Mexico is ten degrees cooler than the road ,





but in cold places it can be ten degrees warmer .making all the difference of life or death ,in places that can have night frost





example





If you plant trees in a circle ,their crowns will shade maybe 8 metres each across .


so in order to remain with a sunny spot in the middle (for those veggies that need the light )the trees have to be about 30 metres apart.





but you can be smaller if you do a half moon garden .

rain roots