October has arrived, and we hardly need National Apple Month to tell us that it’s peak season for apples! Orchards are brimming with every variety you can imagine. While you’re enjoying the fruit, here’s some information about growing apples - specifically, building an apple-centered permaculture guild in your home garden or back yard.

Permaculture master Toby Hemenway, author of [1] Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, describes the theory behind permaculture guilds (groups or layers of complimentary plants and fungi that support each other nutritionally - and sometimes physically - as they grow, thus acting as a diversified micro-ecosystem) and how to build a guild around an apple tree.

[2] An Apple-Centered Guild, An Excerpt from Gaia’s Garden

Toby Hemenway is the author of [3] Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, available now.