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Creating a Superguild

A single apple or walnut tree—let alone an oak—isn’t going to provide a terribly varied diet, even as part of a guild. There’s a limit to how many apples or

nuts a gardener will eat. However, several different tree-centered guilds can be combined to boost both the food choice and the overall biodiversity that a

garden provides. One obvious solution is to substitute other types of fruit and nut trees—peaches, almonds, plums, persimmons—for apple and walnut

trees in guilds. This creates an orchard made of guilds. But any orchard, even one with a remarkably diverse understory such as ours, acts as a beacon to

summon fruit-chomping pests. Also, if the only trees in our yard are fruit-bearers, neatly pruned into open form, uniformly blossoming, all looking like—well,

fruit trees—then the landscape will be visually boring and will lack the biodiversity that’s possible and necessary for a thriving ecosystem.

If the garden is large enough, we can be more subtle than simply growing a bunch of fruit trees. Just as we combine nitrogen fixers, insectary plants,

and other multifunctional florae to create dynamic guilds, we can weave together trees of diverse uses to create a “superguild.” Guilds, each based on a

different type of tree, can act as subunits of a larger, multitree superguild and be integrated to create a more deeply connected community. Our backyard

ecosystem will then shift to a higher level of complexity. Think of the various guilds as organs in a body, combining to form a healthy and long-lived

organism that is capable of much more elaborate behaviors than the components alone. Our guilds can do the same, altering microclimates, attracting

new species, changing the look and feel of our landscape, and restoring it to health.

How can we assemble a set of guilds that will create a complete landscape? The walnut/hackberry guild developed by Tim Murphy hinted at a method.

Tim’s suggestion of using “buffer plants” to protect fruit trees from the effects of a walnut tree’s toxic secretions pointed at one route for extending and

connecting guilds. Bill Mollison, in Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual, elaborates on the value of buffer plants. If we planted a walnut guild next to an

apple guild, the apple tree would suffer from juglone poisoning. Instead, Mollison says, we can select useful buffer trees to fit between and link

incompatible species.

What makes a good buffer tree? First, buffer trees should (obviously) be compatible with the trees we’re trying to link. A tree harmed by juglone isn’t a

good choice for a walnut buffer (a few trees unfazed by walnuts are listed below). Second, in keeping with our desire to find beneficial interactions among

and within guilds, we should keep an eye out for buffer trees that have a positive effect on one or both of the guilds to be linked. Nitrogen fixers, mulch-

producers, and bird- or insect-attracting plants come to mind. Third, species that offer food, animal forage, lumber, or some other useful product should

be among our candidates. We want to stack as many functions as possible into our buffer plants. Some species to connect walnut and apple guilds (and,

potentially, many other guilds) that satisfy one or more of these criteria include:

• Mulberry trees. Unharmed by walnut exudations, mulberries come in many attractive cultivars (white, Russian, Illinois, Olivett). Some home owners

complain that mulberry fruit creates a gooey, staining mess, but intelligent placement (avoiding the driveway and play areas) will minimize this

drawback. Also, if the backyard ecosystem is in good health, the abundant wildlife will greedily consume extra berries. Mulberries are quickly

gobbled by domestic fowl as well, thus a few chickens or ducks in the yard will quickly clean up any dropped fruit.

An orchard superguild. The nitrogen-fixing tree (black locust, acacia, tagasaste, alder, or the like) and mulberry are underplanted with useful shrubs

and flowers (such as mulch plants and insectary plants). Rows of berry bushes and flowering shrubs fill the alleys between the trees, and any open

space holds vegetables and flowers.

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• Nitrogen-fixing trees and large shrubs. Most nitrogen fixers tolerate walnut toxins. Black locusts work well here, having attractive foliage, generous

blossoms that bees love, and rot-resistant timber for fence posts. Other attractive trees that add fertility to soil include acacia, red or black alder,

golden-chain tree, silk tree, and mountain mahogany. Large nitrogen-fixing shrubs, such as Russian olive and wax myrtle, also make good buffer

plants.

A combination of fruit, nut, and buffer trees—for example, apple, walnut, mulberry, and a nitrogen-fixer—creates an array that maximizes beneficial

interactions and minimizes the negative. Here are some of the benefits: A nitrogen fixer boosts the growth of all three other trees by adding fertility to the

soil. Mulberries not only buffer apples from walnut toxins, but research indicates that apples actually profit from mulberry companionship. The guilds-cum-

buffers offer a liberal assortment of food that won’t bore human palates, and the blossoms, fruit, and shelter will attract many species of wildlife.

The illustration on page 204 provides a layout that places each tree-based guild to best advantage. How will this pattern play in suburbia? Ten to twenty

medium-sized trees can be tucked into a typical suburban quarter-acre without shrouding the inhabitants in a gloomy Black Forest. Two iterations of our

four-tree “superguild” gives us eight trees, which leaves ample space in the yard for other species that will raise biodiversity still further. The illustration on

page 205 shows one way of creating a larger superguild orchard.

There is a tangible contrast between a sterile yard that is studded with isolated, out-of-place specimen trees in ecological disconnection and this

thriving semitamed woodland that is vibrant with wildlife, dripping with fruit and nuts, and echoing with the voices of children playing hide-and-seek among

flower-spangled shrubs.

An orchard made up of repeated superguilds. Here, apple and walnut guilds are blended together using mulberries and nitrogen-fixing trees for

buffering, diversity, animal feed, and soil building. As with the single superguild shown on page 204, spaces between trees could be filled with berry

bushes, flowering shrubs, vegetables, and flowers.

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Guilds Aren’t Perfect

I won’t claim that guilds are the answer to all gardening problems. The advantages of guilds—reduced human intervention, less fertilizer and other inputs,

a harmony between people and wildlife, and the magical synergy of plant communities—are obvious. The drawbacks are more subtle. First, guilds can

consume a lot of space. Two or three guilds could fill much of a small city lot. In addition, guilds are slower to establish than an annual bed. A fruit tree

takes several years to bear. Even shrubs need a few seasons to mature. To nudge a guild into early productivity, annual vegetables and flowers can be

planted between the young, more permanent guild elements. As the perennial plants begin to bear, both the space and the need for annuals will diminish,

and we can simply stop reseeding them.

Another weakness: Since a guild’s many plants act in close concert, tracing the source of a difficulty—say, stunted fruit on an apple tree—can be

challenging. Is the problem due to root competition? An allelopathic interaction? A pest harbored by another guild member? In a guild, plant A may aid

plant B, which benefits C, which inhibits A, so where do you start tracing a negative interaction?

Permaculture teacher Tom Ward has experimented with guilds and knows their complexities. “Guilds were first developed in the tropics, where there is

little soil,” Tom notes. “Allelopath toxins are harbored in the soil, but because tropical soils are shallow, allelopaths can’t build up to toxic levels and are

rarely a problem there. Negative interactions seldom occur. Without allelopaths to worry about, guilds are simpler to design in the tropics than they are

here in the temperate zone.”

In contrast to the tropics, temperate forests and prairies have deep soil. In the thick temperate soil layer, toxins secreted by microorganisms and

allelopathic plants can accumulate. Thus, a diverse array of plant species may be shuttling among their roots an equally complex chemical freight. This

varied assortment of sugars, lignins, alkaloids, and what-have-you can have unpredictable effects on nearby plants. Soil-borne toxins make temperate

guild design more difficult.

Also, guilds are often site-specific. What works in New York may be completely inappropriate for California. Tom Ward points out that there is no handy

list of guilds for every garden. “You’re given an example or two,” Tom says. “Nobody has ever put together a book of generic guilds because they are so

specific to site. You have to use observation to figure out what plants grow well together in your region.”

Several of the guilds cited in this chapter—the Three Sisters, the apple guild, and the walnut guild—are attempts at “universal” guilds that should thrive

in most North American conditions. The Oregon white oak guild is a more site-specific guild, presented as an exercise in design based on local native

plants. However, white oaks and their associates are found over much of the continent, so many readers can try something similar if oaks grow near them.

No, there isn’t a “Book of Guilds” for every site. For the most part, temperate-climate guilds are a recent invention, only about twenty years old, and

much remains to be learned and attempted. Perhaps readers of this book will help advance this young and very promising field.

Gardening with guilds forces a different attitude toward harvesting as well. You don’t traipse down a row of clean-cultivated zucchini, filling a bushel

basket with one crop. Guild harvests are reminiscent of the hunter-gatherers: You pluck a few greens, some peppers and tomatoes, a few herbs, a handful

of nuts, and a small basket of fruit and berries for dessert.

Some plants aren’t appropriate for guilds, particularly sprawling winter squash that can smother nearby plants, and a few vegetables that insist on a full

day of sun. Most guild-gardeners have small beds of annual vegetables for bulk harvesting tucked here and there. However, gardeners who grow a

significant portion of their own food have found that guilds, supplemented with annual beds, can approach the ecological ideal of minimal inputs and

maximum diversity.

Nature-based growing systems such as guilds do entail a change in thinking. Tom Ward cites a story told about Masanobu Fukuoka, the sage-like

founder of the Natural Farming movement. Fukuoka’s method involves permanent cover crops interplanted with vegetables and perennials, all with

minimal tending. “One day,” Tom relates, “Fukuoka was asked, ‘If we grow our fruit trees the way you recommend, with no pruning, how do we harvest the

apples and what do we do with them?’ Fukuoka’s answer was, ‘You shake the apples out of the tree and make cider, or feed them to pigs.’ His point was,

you go in a whole other direction.”

Though not to that extreme, guilds ask for a subtle adjustment of our relations with our environment. The order of a conventional row-crop garden is the

order of the machine. This regimentation invites us to view plants as mechanical food factories. We fuel them with fertilizer, service them with rakes and

hoes, and measure their production in bushels, bins, and tons. We view the plants as part of our dominion. In a guild, we are but one living being among

many others; and, like all the other animals enfolded by this community, we nurture and are nurtured by an almost-wild place. We prune and cull, as do the

deer and mice. The fruit we leave does not rot on the ground to breed disease; it is gladly devoured by our many companions. We turn over a bit of soil,

and the worms turn over yet more. We participate rather than rule. With guilds, we can begin to shed the mantle of command and return to nature the many

responsibilities we have unnecessarily assumed.

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CHAPTER 10

Growing a Food Forest

Gardening with guilds brings us one step closer to landscapes that look and act like natural ones but that have been tweaked to benefit people as well as

the rest of nature. However, even guilds are just pieces of a larger whole. Now it’s time to tie guilds and the other ideas presented in this book into a

unified, ecologically sound landscape.

In Chapter 2, I described the process of succession, the evolution of a landscape over decades from bare ground through fast-growing pioneer species

to a mature ecosystem. When not interrupted by fire or other disaster, the end result of succession nearly everywhere is forest. Even in the arid Southwest,

dryland forests of ironwood, mesquite, and saguaro cactus blanketed what is now desert, until the sheep-grazers’ depredations and the lumbermen’s

axes destroyed them. Given twelve or more inches of annual rain and the respite of a handful of years between wildfires, tree and shrub seedlings will

sprout on almost any ground, patiently outwait the other vegetation, and create a woodland. This is why, as noted earlier, suburbanites must constantly

weed and chop out woody seedlings from their well-watered lawns and garden beds. The typical yard, with its perfect regimen of irrigation and fertilizer, is

trying hard to become a forest. Only the lawn mower and pruning shears prevent the woods from taking over.

So why fight this trend toward woodland? Instead, we can work with nature to fashion a multistoried forest garden, a food- and habitat-producing

landscape that acts like a natural woodland. In a forest garden, the yard is a parklike grove of spreading fruit trees, walnuts, chestnuts, and other useful

trees. In the bright openings are smaller persimmon trees, plums, cherries, pawpaws, and a few ornamentals such as golden-chain trees and pink-

flowered silk trees (which just happen to fix nitrogen). Catching the sunlight farther down, dancing with birds, are flowering shrubs and berry bushes.

Occasional honeysuckle and hardy kiwi vines wind up tree trunks, leaving a trail of blossoms and fruit. Beneath all this and in the bright edges are beds of

perennial flowers, vegetables, and soil-building mulch plants. Plant guilds weave this many-layered garden into a cohesive whole, and the many-

functioned flora extends a welcome to helpful insects, birds, and other wildlife, as well as to people.

A food forest such as this isn’t as unconventional as it may sound. I’m not talking about a gloomy mass of light-blocking trees, but an open, many-

layered edible woodland garden with plenty of sunny glades and edges. Many yards already contain most of the elements of a forest garden: a few tall

trees in front or at the back edge, some shrubs for a hedge or berries, a vegetable patch, a few herbs, and a flower bed. But in the typical yard these

elements lie separate and disconnected. A forest garden simply integrates all these pieces into a smoothly working whole.

At its essence, a forest garden has several layers, as does a natural forest. A simple forest garden contains a top layer of trees, a middle level of

shrubs, and a ground layer of herbs, vegetables, and flowers. Each plant is chosen for the roles that it will play, whether for food, wildlife habitat, herbal

medicine, insect attraction, soil building, or any of the other functions that we’ve covered throughout this book. The major trees and shrubs are spaced to

let sunlight fall between them, and plants in the lower layers are placed in sun or shade according to their appetite for light.

A forest garden has a different feel from other garden styles, in large part because trees are a major element, integrated into and defining the other

layers. Certainly, conventional gardens mingle shrubs and nonwoody perennials of varying heights in the traditional mixed border. And nearly every yard

contains a few trees. But in a forest garden, trees—their leaves arching overhead, trunks thrusting skyward, branches enfolding the space—control the

landscape’s character. We’re not strolling in an exposed group of bushes and flowers, our heads above most of the foliage; instead, we’re nestled within

a sheltering yet open canopy of trees of all heights. The trees dominate, yet without smothering other plants.

With a tree-filled forest garden, we have enlisted as our allies the most powerful and productive vegetation on the planet, the aristocrats of the plant

world. In Chapter 6 I briefly described the many and important roles that trees play. I believe that trees—as full, integrated partners, not merely as

scattered specimens—are a prerequisite for a healthy, sustainable landscape.

Trees’ ability to produce soil-enriching leaf litter, fill the earth with humusy roots, quell temperature swings, hold moisture, arrest erosion, and offer tiers

of habitat for animals is unparalleled, and in the forest garden they’re on our side. And for productivity you can’t beat trees. An acre of wheat provides a

mere one to two tons of grain, while an acre of chestnut trees yields up to three tons of nuts, and an acre of honey-locust trees explodes with fifteen tons of

protein-rich pods—without annual replanting. Apple and other fruit tree yields can reach seven tons per acre, although much of this is water weight. But

even dried apple yields can match those of dry wheat. Compared to grains and other annuals, the vastly greater expanse of energy-harvesting greenery of

trees gives them an unbeatable advantage.

Trees reach deep into the earth for nutrients and water, and far and wide into the sky for solar power. They are life’s largest, most effective natural

collectors of energy and matter. So, by incorporating trees as integral elements of the garden, we’re putting heavy hitters on our team. Trees, though they

share the space with many other species, define the forest garden and distinguish it from other landscape styles.

The wealth of trees, shrubs, and other florae we have to choose from means that the forest garden can be as varied as a forest itself and as individual

as its owner. Some gardeners will want a veritable food forest, where the constant rain of ripe fruit and luscious berries almost warrants wearing a hard

hat. Others will pitch their miniforest toward blossom and beauty, selecting plants to create a tall, thick cascade of color and many-textured foliage.

Utilitarian souls may sculpt a garden that yields income from medicinal tinctures, craft wood, bamboo poles, rare seeds, nursery plants, or grafting stock.

Or the gardener can mix and match the styles to tailor a garden that combines food, beauty, habitat, species preservation, and income.

A garden that uses trees and shrubs to reach far into three dimensions offers maximum wildlife habitat, the largest possible crop yields for the space,

and the greatest possibilities for edge and diversity. It won’t hurt property values either, as the most desirable neighborhoods are always those with well-

developed trees. On hilly land, forest gardens are also the most ecologically sound way to develop steep slopes because the trees and other perennial

plants hold soil in place and eliminate the need for erosion-producing tillage.

A U-shaped forest garden. If the U opens toward the sun, the garden also forms a sun-trap. A symmetrical planting arrangement gives a more formal

appearance, less symmetry makes the garden feel wilder. REDRAWN WITH PERMISSION FROM HOW TO MAkE A FOREST GARDEN, BY

PATRICK WHITEFIELD (PERMANENT PUBLICATIONS, 1997).

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The illustrations on this page and the next show some of the possible forms that a forest garden can take. Shapes, heights, spacing, and overall size

can be altered to suit the site conditions and gardener’s preferences. A large yard provides enough room for full-sized trees, while in a smaller property,

dwarf and naturally small species can fit together to provide biodiversity. Northern gardeners will want a more open array of trees to allow the not-so-

strong sunlight to reach the ground layers, but southerners may desire dense spacing to provide needed shade.

Forest gardens raise the obvious question: Don’t the upper layers cast too much shade for the lower plants? Part of the answer is that proper tree

spacing and shade-tolerant plants will keep lack of light from being a problem. But to be perfectly honest—especially for northern gardens where the sun

is weaker—fruit yields and flower density won’t be as large in the shady parts of the understory as in full sun. I have grown currants and gooseberries, two

shade-tolerant bush fruits, in both full sun and under some pear trees, and the sunnier plants bear more fruit. But the shade-grown shrubs require less

water, have lusher, darker foliage, and are still packed with plenty of berries. Plus, the shrub-filled, sun-dappled margin under the pear tree offers far more

diversity and value—ecologically, aesthetically, and for my palate—than if I were just growing grass.

A forest garden for a rectangular yard. Large trees are placed far apart so that light can reach shrubs and smaller trees. Vegetable or flower beds are

located on the sunward side.

Forest gardens offer the same advantages as guilds, and then some. Nearly every cubic inch is filled with greenery, flowers, or fruit. This riot of

vegetation into three dimensions furnishes vast amounts of habitat for birds, small animals, and beneficial insects. Pest problems dwindle. And, once

established, forest gardens are low-maintenance because the thick vegetation cover reduces water needs, smothers weeds, and renews soil through

self-mulching and natural soil building. Because the forest garden holds mostly perennial and self-seeding plants, it also needs no tilling and little

seasonal replanting.

At the Bullock brothers’ several-acre food forest on Orcas Island, Doug Bullock listed some other access benefits of forest gardening. “Sheer

biodiversity is part of it,” he told me. “We get birds and other animals here that no one else has seen for years. But the best part is the food—it’s unreal!”

We stood beneath a plum tree bent nearly double with fruit, and I nodded as Doug continued. “Every summer we have about twenty students here for three

weeks. And there’s enough fruit right here to feed them. Think about it: Twenty people grazing for weeks on plums, peaches, and berries, and when

they’re gone there’s still tons of fruit on the trees for us.”

Because Doug and his brothers have populated their food forest with a wide variety of plants, every month of the year brings fresh fruit or vegetables:

cool-season salad greens in midwinter, berries in late spring, and branch-breaking loads of fruit in summer and fall. Even in December, their exotic

medlar trees bear a fruit that tastes like cinnamon-spiced pear butter.

Experimenting with Forest Gardens

Temperate-climate forest gardening is a new field, and only a few mature forest gardens exist on this continent. However, many more are old enough to

have begun producing, and hundreds more are currently being planted. I visited several established food forests while researching the first edition of this

book and have returned to some of them in the intervening years.

One site that illustrates the transition from raised-bed to forest garden is that of Jerome Osentowski, near Aspen, Colorado. Jerome faces some tough

gardening challenges, as he lives 7,400 feet above sea level. Frosts can hit during any month. When I first visited him, in September of 1999, his one-

third-acre garden was still lush and green, but he expected the first killing frosts of autumn soon.

A Brief History of Forest Gardens

Forest gardening is a young field for North American gardeners, but it has a long history. Food forests have existed for millennia in the tropics, though

early anthropologists didn’t recognize them as gardens at all. Accustomed to row crops and annual vegetables, the first white visitors to tropical home-

gardens assumed that the small plots of manioc, beans, or grain near African, Asian, and South American houses provided most of the inhabitants’

food. The surrounding tangle of vegetation was assumed to be untamed jungle, and these people were branded as practicing only primitive agriculture.

Only after prolonged and unprejudiced observation did anthropologists comprehend that virtually every plant near the dwellings was useful in some

way. The tall trees were timber and firewood producers or nitrogen fixers, while the shorter ones bore mangoes, papayas, avocados, and other

marvelous fruits. Beneath these were shrubs for food, fiber, and wood products. The herb layer was filled with medicinal, edible, and ornamental plants.

Rampant growth was slashed back several times each year and used for mulch or animal fodder. But because these plants were arranged in guilds

and by function, rather than in neat lines and beds, scientists had no idea that they were looking at an ecologically sound, carefully worked-out scheme

for producing nearly everything the occupants needed. Sadly, many of these wonderful food forests have been replaced by Western-style cash-crop

agriculture, making the once self-reliant inhabitants dependent on fertilizers, pesticides, and imported, processed food and other goods.

Fortunately, a number of visionaries saw the immense value of these tropical forest-gardens. One was Robert Hart, an Englishman who not only

studied tropical food forests but transplanted many of their concepts to temperate gardens. His book, Forest Gardening, was the first to describe the

subject for the Northern Hemisphere. A second useful book is How to Make a Forest Garden, by Patrick Whitefield. Both books are written primarily

for a British audience. The new bible for food forest enthusiasts is Edible Forest Gardens, by David Jacke and Eric Toensmeier. This magisterial two-

volume set, eight years in the making, thoroughly covers the theory and practice of forest gardening for temperate climates. It includes extensive plant

lists and design ideas and is a comprehensive guide that has no equal. See the bibliography for more information on these books.

For years, much of Jerome’s income came from growing organic salad greens for the upscale markets and restaurants of Aspen. Supplying this finicky

market year-round supported Jerome for a decade or so. But it took arduous labor, and Jerome was dismayed by the mountains of hard-to-find compost

materials that he was importing, and then exporting from his land as salad greens. This open loop disturbed his permacultural sense of propriety. Finally,

California salad growers 1,000 miles away began offering produce to local stores more cheaply than Jerome could. After ten years, Jerome began

shifting to food forestry. Now, many of the former salad beds held small trees and shrubs.

We stood by one bed in which celery and a few heads of lettuce dotted a sunny edge below some young trees. “The food forest was a natural evolution

of this place,” Jerome said as I admired the heat-holding rock terraces of his young forest garden. “After years of growing annual vegetables, a lot of

fertility had leached down to where the short roots of the salad greens couldn’t get it. So I went to fruit trees, with their deep roots, to get at all those

nutrients.”

I asked Jerome what species he had planted. Swinging his arm to encompass the slope, he said, “Let’s start with the trees. We’ve got apples—there’s

one with five different varieties grafted onto it. Apricots, plums, some native Douglas firs, and New Mexico locusts for nitrogen. The trees are young, not

really in production yet. But the shrubs are really giving us a lot of food now.” He pointed out the understory of black and white currants, gooseberries, bush

cherries, cranberries, and Siberian pea shrubs. Bamboo and willow were sprouting vigorously, and several varieties of grapes, along with scarlet runner

beans and squash, entwined the other vegetation. Strawberries and claytonia (miner’s lettuce) swarmed over the rock terraces.

“We’ve got a lot of medicinal herbs, too,” Jerome continued. “A nice market crop if we want it. Echinacea, St. John’s-wort, astragalus, artemisia, lots

more.” The lush cascade of greenery nearly filled the hillside garden. “What makes this place work, though, are what I call the compañeros, all the guild

companion-plants.” He showed me the rich array of soil-building and insect-attracting species: nitrogen fixers such as pea shrubs, fava beans, clovers,

fenugreek, and alfalfa; bee plants such as borage and comfrey; other insectary species, including fennel, celery, dill, and coriander; and strongly scented

pest-confusers such as horseradish, Mexican marigold, garlic mustard, and walking onions. These many-functioned plants reduce Jerome’s share of the

pest control and fertilization duties and augment the web of ecological connections among the forest garden’s inhabitants.

The rock terraces don’t just give Jerome more flat ground for his garden. They are essential to mitigating the volatile mountain climate. The mass of the

stones absorbs heat, softening temperature swings, warming the plants at night, and blocking frost. “The rock terraces were important in helping the

young plants survive,” Jerome told me. “They get shaded now in the summer, but they still store heat in winter and especially in spring when the plants

need it most.” During winter, the rocks, snow cover, and mulch combine to prevent the ground from freezing, even when temperatures plunge below zero.

This allows slug-eating snakes and other beneficial wildlife to survive the cold season.

The garden is surrounded by a tall deer fence, and a complete guild was designed to grow on it. Hops and sweet peas trellis up the woven wire, and

Russian olive and gooseberry form a green shrub layer. Sunflowers stretch skyward. Clover and strawberries cascade along the ground, interspersed

with garlic in the root zone. In a forest garden, every site offers new opportunities for creative design.

Though food is one obvious benefit here, Jerome explained the forest garden’s compounding value. “As I phase out the salad-green operation, I can

get income from the medicinals and tinctures, and from nursery stock and scionwood for grafting. But I’ve found that’s not the most valuable part. I learn

from all this. And so do my students who come up here for the classes at Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute.” The real value-added product of

the forest garden is the inspiration, knowledge, and renewal that comes when humans and the rest of nature mesh in a healthy, vigorous, and diverse

setting.

A few years later I returned to Jerome’s garden to find a mature food-forest in lavish abundance. It was mid-August, and sturdy peach trees stood

guilded with Siberian pea shrubs, sunflowers, cabbage, clover, comfrey, and cosmos. Lunch for twenty students came almost exclusively from the garden,

day after day. No longer does Jerome import truckloads of organic matter. The garden generates almost all the mulch and compost materials it requires.

Much of the mulch is from woody plants, to create nourishment that favors fungi, which predominate in forest soils, as opposed to the bacteria that prevail

in annual garden soil and turf lawns. The fruit-tree guilds also yield horseradish, astragalus (a nitrogen-fixing medicinal herb), mint, basil, and other

culinary herbs that Jerome sells to three local supermarkets and two farmers’ markets.

Jerome Osentwoski’s forest garden at Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute. The rock terraces and pond both store daytime heat and release it

during the cool Colorado nights, which aids plant growth and fruit production. PHOTO BY JEROME OSENTOWSKI.

Jerome’s Guilds and Guild Plants

• Deer fence guild: hops, sweet pea, Russian olive, gooseberry, sunflowers, clover, strawberry, garlic.

• Apple-tree guild: red currant, Siberian pea shrub, red and white clover, borage, garlic, fava bean, dill, lupine, astragalus, native wildflowers, mint,

basil.

• Peach-tree guild: Siberian pea shrub, sunflowers, cabbage, clover, comfrey, horseradish, calendula, nicotiana, cosmos.

• Douglas-fir guild: currant, Siberian pea shrub, salad burnet, crotolaria, Mexican marigold.

Other plants used in Jerome’s fruit tree guilds

• Shrubs: black and white currants, gooseberries, Hansen’s cherry, Nanking cherry, elderberry, cranberry.

• Vines: grapes, hops, sweet pea, scarlet runner bean, nasturtium, squash.

• Ground covers and herbs: strawberry, claytonia (miner’s lettuce), salad burnet, celery, arugula, mustards, amaranth, chrysanthemum, parsley,

cumin.

• Nitrogen-fixers: Siberian pea shrub, Russian olive, fava beans, clovers, lupine, bird’s-foot trefoil, fenugreek, alfalfa.

• Insectary plants: borage, buckwheat, comfrey, fennel, celery, dill, coriander, oregano, chamomile.

• Pest fumigants and repellents: horseradish, Mexican marigold, garlic mustard, walking onion.

• Medicinal plants: astragalus, echinacea, mullein, St. John’s-wort, artemisia, spilanthes.

• Root plants: garlic, walking onion, Jerusalem artichoke, carrot, potato.

The conditions have given Jerome a graduate education in food forestry. Dwarf fruit trees, the usual choice for small spaces and high production, fared

poorly. They are bred to have feeble root systems, which keeps them small. But in these nutrient-poor soils and harsh conditions, the skimpy roots meant

starvation. Standard-size fruit trees, with expansive roots, survived, and in Jerome’s environment haven’t grown much larger than dwarfs.

Osentowski has invented what he calls “Polish swales.” Instead of digging swales into the rocky soil, he does it backward: he piles up small branches

along the contour lines, adding compost and discarded greenery, along with stones and other available debris. This forms berms that trap soil, leaf litter,

manure and bird poop, and anything else sluicing down the steep slopes. The berms of these inverted swales slow down water and force it to percolate

down into the food forest’s root zone.

What inspired me the most on my later visit was Jerome’s integration of two large greenhouses into his home and garden. One, which he has

christened Mana after the Hawaiian spiritual force, grows like a gossamer bud from his house. It’s dual purpose, heating air that is circulated through his

home and also sheltering a semitropical food forest. The second greenhouse, also with a name from the tropics, Pele, for the Hawaiian fire goddess,

holds a sauna amid the greenery as a backup heat source. I was astounded to see bananas, figs, pomegranates, jujubes, chayote squash, and other

plants not often found north of Los Angeles. Yet here they thrived at 7,400 feet in winter temperatures that can dip to twenty below zero. One key to his

success is an inflatable double-walled clear plastic that insulates far better than glass and is much less expensive. Also, the thermal mass of the soil and

the rock walls capture daytime heat. A fan pushes warmed air through a set of underground pipes to distribute this heat where it is needed, which includes

the house. In the high Rockies, Jerome is developing methods that will allow people in virtually any climate to enjoy tropical food, without massive energy

use. This immensely expands the possibilities of forest gardening and might offer us clues to dealing successfully with climate change.

The Seven-Story Garden

It’s time to look at forest garden design. A simple forest garden contains three layers: trees, shrubs, and ground plants. But for those who like to take

advantage of every planting opportunity, a deluxe forest garden can contain as many as seven tiers of vegetation. As the illustration below shows, a

seven-layered forest garden contains tall trees, low trees, shrubs, herbs, ground covers, vines, and root crops.

Here are these layers in more detail. Table 10-1 suggests plant species for each layer.

1. The Tall-Tree Layer. This is an overstory of full-sized fruit, nut, or other useful

The seven layers of the forest garden.

trees, with spaces between to let plenty of light reach the lower layers. Dense, spreading species—the classic shade trees such as maple, sycamore,

and beech—don’t work well in the forest garden because they cast deep shadows over a large area. Better choices are multifunctional fruit and nut

trees. These include standard and semistandard apple and pear trees, European plums on standard rootstocks such as Myrobalan, and full-sized

cherries. Chestnut trees, though quite large, work well, especially if pruned to an open, light-allowing shape. Chinese chestnuts, generally not as

large as American types, are good candidates (see Table 10-1 for botanical names of all species mentioned here). Walnut trees, especially the

naturally open, spreading varieties such as heartnut and buartnut, are excellent. Don’t overlook the nut-bearing stone piñon and Korean nut pines.

Nitrogen-fixing trees will help build soil, and most bear blossoms that attract insects. These

Table 10-1. Plants for the Forest Garden The herb layer has been omitted from this table, as there are thousands of suitable species and many of

them are listed elsewhere in this book.

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