Growing Plant Communities: Plant Guilds and Companion Planting

Learn the basics of companion planting and guild design!  This class will provide a primer on how to select plants to grow together for beneficial relationships.  There are a number of different considerations when selecting plants to grow together.  You can consider spatial relationships (above and below ground), ecological functions, similar growing characteristics, primary habitat, seasonal bloom time, harvest time, planting time, and more!  In the morning, we will talk about how plants can be chosen to occupy different niches in a plant community.  We will go over the ecological functions and services that plants offer.  We will look at this on different scales from the garden to the orchard and the ornamental landscape.  We will also look at how companion planting applies in the vegetable garden.  

This workshop will include handouts, hands-on practice, and games to learn about these techniques and strategies.  Whether you have a garden, orchard, or…