Cherry Guild

The cold-climate fruit tree guild from our own published method, USDA zones 4 to 7, where winters are long and the growing season short. Sweet cherry is the centrepiece. Siberian pea shrub and saskatoon are the secondaries, one fixing nitrogen and both feeding birds and people, coppiced as the cherry canopy closes. Comfrey is the mineral pump, cut three times a season and dropped where it falls. Chives and wild daffodil ring the trunk against borers and grazers; yarrow draws the beneficial insects. Wild lupine and red clover fix nitrogen in the early years and are thinned as the shade deepens. Rhubarb and horseradish hold the outer edge, hardy kiwi climbs the pea shrub, and creeping thyme closes the ground. Plant the cherry a year old and keep grass a full metre back.