Plant Guilds

Plant guilds are something we have been practicing for a little while now at Life On The Land.  I have posted on our use of comfrey as a mineral accumulator/miner and also as a living mulch around our fruit trees.  Today I was delighted to see another one of our helpers pop its head up help and  say hello.

I planted these dutch iris bulbs around this apple tree that I rescued from a development site.  As a mature tree, I wanted to give it every chance of survival after being transplanted, so in addition to comfrey, I included these bulbs too within the guild.

Plant association within guilds can perform many functions: it can be food for people, or soil, mine for minerals in the soil, produce ground cover, or even a combination of these functions - the list goes on.  These bulbs were to mainly provide protection to the tree from animals such as rabbits, who have a tendency to chew the bark around the base.  They are also attract insects and, well ... I think they look just beautiful too.

I only had a few bulbs on hand, so they are quite sparse at the moment.  With time however, they will multiply and only get better.