guild yes no - or simply diversity in a food forest?

My (old) permie books talk a lot about guilds. We are developing a new food forest and I wonder whether I should plan a guild for each tree or simply go for lots of diversity. The limiting factor is that we will most likely have to net  a good part of the more valuable fruit and there will be an enclosure around say 250 m2. In this space, the trees will be close together.
What does your experience/science say about guilds? Is it just a fashion and equally good to mixed plantings or are there really advantages?

I generally do a combination, having a few plants that are planned and planted together, and then I just let the wild plants fill in the rest. It's so much easier for me like that.

I have been making this same question to myself the last few months.

As I see it, when trying to maximize the yield in a market garden bed, you want to seed three or four species in the same bed, not more. Therefore, it is really important that these different plants come well along, that they don't kill the efforts of the other plants. The most obvious is not mixing nitrogen fixers with bactericides. That is, legumes with liliaceae. Since one of them wants bacteri to capture nitrogen from the air, while the other is killing the bacteri. The other obvious thing is having a few fast growing plants mixed with slow growing plants, so the bed is fully used all the time. That's a focus on productivity.

Let's say you just want a garden, that you have more than enough space for your garden to fulfill your necessities, and that you want it a food forest garden, so you don't have to fight against your plants to force them to give you food. In that case, you let Nature do her work. You, as a gardener, only have to choose which species you like (the more the better, but you don't need to overdo it), which you don't like, and let Nature decide the best spot for them. If they thrive, that was the spot. If they don't, plant them in other place. Other than that, if you take away nutrients, you must bring back nutrients (compost or animal manures).


I've seen this conflict again and again when watching permaculture videos. Some are geared towards the farmer who need a big harvest to sell in the market and make a life, some are geared towards the homesteader that needs fresh food for the family every day. Different needs, different strategies. Make sure what are yours before commiting to one style or the other.

Maybe in Australia you have the same feelings as I do- I read about guilds, and half of the plants either I can't find here or they don't grow here. Outside of North America (and maybe Europe) it seems like we're on our own. Some classic things  don't work with my weather or my pests. I plant all sorts of things together, and the things that I've seen to work over time, I keep for the next year.