Guilds

Photo: Chris Evans

CoOperation - Guilds

In nature we can often find groupings of plants that seem to like to grow together & these we call guilds. They occur where each species in the group (& these might include insects or animals too) can provide something of benefit to the others. It is one demonstration of co-operation in nature.

Some species by growing together benefit mutually from each others presence. We can create guilds in our designs, by placing together species in this same way. We could place a tall strong plant with a climber & a ground cover plant (filling different niches), include a nitrogen fixer & maybe a plant to attract a predator species to eat one of the other plants pests. There's almost an infinite number of possibilities for us to try.

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