Okay, after two years and three months into this homesteading thing, there’s finally a teeny tiny food guild in the works. Yikes! What progress! (yes, that’s a snarky tone there).
This is supposed to be a sustainable, permaculture homestead — meaning that we make “zones” where those plants and bushes that need the most tending are near the house and where the animals and less tended items (like fruit trees and chickens) are further away. It also means that we want to heat at almost no cost, get our electricity from solar panels and our water from an easily renewable source. It also means that we plant our food in guilds in a manner that allows the plants to nurture and benefit one another as well as wildlife and us humans. So far though, except for the water, it’s been anything but.
So far, we’ve got raised beds sticking up everywhere as we try to grow enough food to eat, enough to put by and some to sell for income. So far, the chicken coop is less than twelve feet from the bedroom window cuz there was no other place to put it. So far, the greenhouse, which should be looked at almost daily is at the very edge of the property. And, so far, the food guilds have only existed in The Happy Homesteader’s imagination. BUT . . .
It’s tiny, but IT’S AN APPLE FOOD GUILD! Yay! Or, it will be, once other plants are added in spring. And of course it’s next to the house instead of further away because that’s the only spot available. It’s okay though because it’s better than not having one. In spring, two of our potted blueberries will go in, along with a comfrey plant or two to add nitrogen to the soil. Daffodils will definitely go around the Gala apple tree because deer eschew them. Then a few kales, some lettuces, herbs, etc and — voila — a genuine food guild. One down and five or six more to go.
