How To Build An Apple Tree Guild [Examples, Companion Flowers, And More!]

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If you want to plant an apple tree in your garden, you should not cultivate it alone. In the wild, plants don’t grow in isolation. They grow in communities of plants. In your garden? You should mimic natural ecosystems and surround any new apple tree that you plant with an apple tree guild.

What Is an Apple Guild?

An apple guild or apple tree guild is a collection of plants specifically and carefully chosen to place around an apple tree in a particular location. The plants are selected to aid the apple tree, form a functioning ecosystem, and provide you with additional yields to help you make the most of your space.

fruit guild with strawberries apples and pears — Here’s the perfect sample of an apple and fruit tree guild! You see dwarf pear trees and baby apple trees. Also, notice the abundant strawberry undergrowth. Strawberries make our favorite groundcover crop. Strawberries have the best yield when there are plenty of beneficial pollinators. Just like apple trees!

Why Create an Apple Tree Guild?

Creating an apple tree guild is something undertaken for a range of reasons. The perfect apple tree guild should:

Aid the tree at the heart of the guild.
Form beneficial interactions between plants and with local soil life and other wildlife.
Provide you with a range of edible and other yields.

The goal is to create symbiosis so that all the elements work together to create a harmonious ecosystem. An ecosystem that sustains itself over time and creates a relatively low-maintenance garden.

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Without increasing competition between plants too much, your aim when creating an apple tree guild is to boost biodiversity in your space, bringing benefits to the apple tree itself, local wildlife, and you and your household.

What Should I Plant in the Fruit Tree Guild?

The most important thing to remember when deciding what to plant in any fruit tree guild is that plants should always get chosen regarding where you live and the particular site.

Consider the following.

Your geographical location.
The climate and micro-climate where you live.
Sunlight, shade, wind, and water.
The soil type, pH, and other characteristics.
What do you wish for the guild to provide?

There are times when you may wish to introduce non-native plants into your design. However, for the best possible results? I would always recommend including as many native plants to fill ecosystem niches as possible.

It can be helpful to look at native plants for your area as you consider which plants are within each layer of your guild and which functions they may be able to fulfill.

small pear tree with ripe delicious fruit — If you’re going to grow apples – you may as well grow pears too! Since pears and apples have similar propagation requirements – they make the perfect food forest teammates. Pears are also tremendously easy to grow – making them the ideal food forest crop.

The Basic Elements for a Fruit Tree Guild

When creating a fruit tree guild, it can be helpful to consider the different layers of plant life. You will have:

The apple tree itself (which should get carefully chosen for your location and particular site).
Often shrubs or even smaller trees.
Perhaps climbers and vines climbing up a more mature tree or growing nearby.
An entire range of herbaceous perennials! Both taller plants and ground cover species.
Sometimes self-seeding annual or biennial plants.
Bulbs, roots, and tubers in the rhizosphere (root zone).

Not every guild will include all of those elements. But considering each will help you develop a fully-rounded and holistic design for the apple tree guild.

Functions Plants in an Apple Tree Guild Should Fulfil

In an apple tree guild, you should have the following.

Plants to enhance environmental conditions (providing shade or ground cover, for example, and preventing grass and weeds from growing into the area).
Plants that help add or maintain fertility through nitrogen fixation. And plants that can dynamically gather nutrients (from lower levels of the soil, for example). These may provide nutrients to plants growing close by but are often chopped and dropped as a mulch to feed the system.
Species that attract pollinators and other beneficial wildlife help keep the ecosystem balanced. It also helps keep pest numbers down through predation.
Elements that confuse, distract or repel certain pests.
Choose plants providing edible harvests or other yields such as herbal medicines, dyes, crafting materials, et cetera.

Also, remember that a guild can include life below the soil! And the other wildlife shares your space, too. These will form connections with the plants you choose and ensure that the (overall) ecosystem functions as it should.

red apple tree with wooden picnic table — Your apple trees need pollinators. Loads of them! And since various pollen sources attract different pollinators – we recommend planting a diverse guild filled with various shrubs, flowers, and plants! The more pollinators – the more apples. Period!

Creating an Apple Tree Guild

Choose an appropriate location to plant an apple tree.
Select your apple tree and initial guild species (remember that you may add to this as the apple tree matures and the system changes over time). Your initial design will be a starting point rather than an end destination.
Choose how large to make your guild. A guild will typically reach the mature drip-line of the tree but may extend over a larger area. Appletree guilds don’t have to be round. They can also get made in irregular shapes. You can also make linear guilds – like hedgerows, across the terrain.
Prepare the site. You might be wondering – how do I prepare my soil for apple trees?

Preparing soil for apple trees may involve clearing the site manually of unwanted vegetation and undertaking earthworks to manage water on the site. It might include layering cardboard and sheet mulching.

Sheet mulching and cardboard help suppress grass and weed growth and protect and feed the soil before your apple tree guild gets established. But will be site-specific.

Plant shrubs and perennial guild members, and sow seeds for certain species.
Ensure you water and otherwise care for the apple tree and other plants as the system becomes established.

blackberry bush colorful berries plant — Blackberry shrubs and apple trees go together beautifully in your apple tree guild. Apples require oodles of pollinators for the best crop. Blackberry shrubs produce boatloads of nectar – and bees love them. Growing blackberries is also perfect for diverse food forests because they tolerate partial shade.

Apple Tree Guild Example

You’ll find one other example of an apple tree guild in my article about fruit tree guild layout.

Remember that this example shows a guild created for a specific environment and site. There can be immense variety in apple tree guilds, and you certainly don’t have to stick to the most common plants used. This example is from my work as a permaculture garden designer, and I have designed many other guilds and food forest designs for my clients over the last few years.

While you may choose the above elements for your guild and learn from them, you should always make sure that you understand your particular site! Strive to make selections and design decisions suited to it.

Please note that some elements in guild examples given online can be invasive in some areas. Though, they will not pose a problem elsewhere. Always research plants carefully before you decide to use them in your garden, and embrace native options if possible.

apple tree guild example — There’s one easy way to make your food forest, homestead, or permaculture garden more balanced. It’s to add apple trees! Your local region will dictate the best indigenous shrubs, native crops, and plants to grow alongside your apple tree. But the above image lists some of our favorites.

Best Apple Tree Guild Flowers for Pollinators!

If your apple orchard or food forest has plenty of bees – we bet you’ll have more abundant yields every year.

The opposite is also true!

If your apple tree guild or garden lacks beneficial pollinators like bumblebees, honeybees, wasps, and native bees, it’s tough for your fruits and vegetables to take off as expected.

We’ve also read that around 75% of crops depend on pollinators! That’s one more reason you should grow plenty of wildflowers, fruit trees, groundcover crops, and native shrubs.

(It’s also why we always beg our friends to stop using synthetic herbicides and pesticides.)

So – do you want more bees and pollinators? Then we wrote the following list of our favorite wildflowers and mixed flower seeds. These seeds will get your food forest and apple guild pumping with life.

In no time!

We hope they help – and remember to keep feeding the bees.

For life!

Black-Eyed Susan Seeds | Botanical Interests

We love the bold black and orange colors of black-eyed Susans! Here’s an elegant upgrade for your apple tree guild that invites plenty of bees. They’re also easy to grow – black-eyed Susans flourish in zones three through nine.

The plants reach about three feet tall. Their beautiful yellow flowers also provide a large surface area for various pollinators. In zones three through seven, they work as annuals.

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