In 2015, Jess Tsoukalas lived in Wellfleet on a rental property that her predecessor had planted with numerous fruit trees.
“I looked at all our fruit trees. And she had one, it was a really great peach tree. And everyone says, you know, you can’t grow good peaches on the Cape because of leaf curl disease and so on and so forth.”
Peaches are notorious out here for getting all sorts of mold and disease. But Jess noticed THIS peach tree was thriving. So she started paying attention. And the first thing she noticed was that there were some really unusual plants growing in the peach’s undergrowth.
“It looked like everything had wandering onions underneath it. Not everything, but it was like a huge field of wandering onions underneath it.”
Walking onions aren’t your average understory bluegrass—they’re perennial alliums with tall stems and a strong onion smell. And the closer she looked, the more Jess realized that the ground beneath the peach tree was covered with other unusual understory species, all of which had obviously been planted there on purpose.
“She formed guilds with all the fruit trees.”
Jess explains further.
“It’s just about planting other plants under a fruit tree to support them, to promote their health, like nitrogen fixers, pollinators, pest controllers, you know, really fragrant, oil-producing plants and all those things, so it’s almost like they have this team under them, you know?”
That’s why the peach tree was doing so well, Jess realized. It had a whole support network beneath it. The walking bulbs scared away pests and there were useful flowers next to it.
“So plants that attract beneficial insects. Two really, really good plants are fennel and dill. And the wild carrot. Most people are attracted to them, but when you look at the wild carrot and the insects on it, it’s really incredible what it attracts.”
All three flowering plants have been shown to attract small bees, wasps, flies and beetles. Many of these animals are not only beneficial pollinators but also predators that eat common peach pests such as aphids.
“I’ve also heard of people making daffodils.”
“Yes, I do daffodils too. And when you have a new tree, it’s really good to do daffodils around the trunk. Just make a big circle like that. And that supposedly stops animals from digging at the roots of the tree.”
This practice is based on the fact that all bulbs in the daffodil family, which includes daffodils, contain lycorine, a highly toxic alkaloid that can be fatal to both animals and humans if the bulbs are eaten. So instead of attracting beneficial species, daffodils drive away the species that growers don’t want. And last but not least, Jess noticed a whole different category of species under the peach tree, which permaculture growers call dynamic accumulators.
“So it’s actually a dynamic accumulator, as is often the case with plants with taproots, which penetrate the soil and bring the nutrients up to make them more available to the tree.”
Imagine the taproot of species like burdock and dandelion, which – if you ever find them in your garden – disappear underground forever and ever. But there are many other examples, like nettles, which are particularly good at absorbing calcium and form an entire network of rhizomes underground. The key is a deep, active root system.
Jess says she likes to plant comfrey around fruit trees, which is known to accumulate potassium and silicon in its tissues, and yarrow, which is not only considered a dynamic accumulator but also works with soil bacteria to pull nitrogen from the air and convert it into a form that plants can use. Jess says over the years she has become fascinated with thinking about all the different guilds we can create and experiment with, playing to the strengths of different species.
“You know, having the same guild for every craft would be kind of boring. And there are so many different plants. For example, if you look online and search for nitrogen fixers or dynamic accumulators or whatever, there are so many different plants and herbs and it’s just beautiful, like this all-encompassing orchestra, you know, and variety is key.”
It is indeed.
