The Wild Child Gardens Fruit Forest Guild is created using a permaculture technique where various plants are strategically grouped around a fruit tree to create a mini ecosystem that supports the tree's health and productivity while also providing a diverse and beneficial garden space. The guild will create a self-sustaining environment where plants support each other and the need for external inputs are reduced. Multiple fruit tree guilds will be linked together to create a larger food forest that mimics the structure and function of a natural forest.

 

The Wild Child Gardens Fruit Forest Guild is planned to be a community of plants which are self-sustaining and biodiverse ecosystems, that will grow together around eight fruit trees planted on the 1-3/4-acre heritage property. This plant community will support each other by recycling nutrients back into the soil, providing shade, conserving water, attracting beneficial insects, repelling pests and diseases, building soil, and preventing erosion.

 

The species of fruit trees and plants planned for the forest guild will help the community by providing nutritious fruit to those who experience food insecurity and have limited access to healthy produce, create environmental benefits by providing places for pollinators to nest, rest, forage, and rear young,  provide education to local adults and youth about fruit tree gardening, fruit forest guilds, and nutrition, and provide plants that can be used to make herbal medicines, natural dyes, and edible flowers.