Guild Kits and Green-Aides

What are Guild Kits?

Guild Kit* is a phrase I coined in 2007 to describe a list of guilded, or companion, plants specifically aimed at making it easy for marginalized and low-income families to create perennial food gardens at home.  My Guild Kit differs from a Permaculture guild in the sense that it is meant to be plopped down into an apartment planting strip or doorstep dirt patch following basic soil preparation, whereas in a Permaculture design guilds are built into a larger pattern of the entire landscape design.  

In addition to supporting low-income families, my Guild Kits can also be utilized by individuals of all means to jump-start a Permaculture food forest or to learn more about permanent agriculture through hands-on experience. Schools may find Guild Kits an exciting way to teach young people about gardening and nature while contributing fresh foods to the cafeteria menu, and ecological groups may want to use Guild Kits to do restoration work or for fund raising. 

I have created several different Guild Kit designs to address specific needs or scenarios. The first is based on a dwarf fruit tree, and is designed to augment a low-income family's diet with basic vegetables & fruits. The second Guild Kit focuses on riparian restoration via a simple clumping method of establishing points of healthy mini native plant communities.  More Kit designs are on their way.*

There is so much more that goes into each Guild Kit than just the foods it will produce for a family or the plant communities it sets up in a degraded natural area. Everyone will be able to enjoy the life cycle stages of the plant community within the Guild Kit, including observation of beneficial insects, flowers, and humus creation. My main intention is to help families who don't otherwise have the means to go camping or put in a new patio can gain what Nature has to offer in their own back yards or even the tiny triangular planting bed in front of their apartments. 

Each Guild Kit contains five to ten basic plants that grow well together and support one another in a variety of ways. These include structural support, nitrogen production, and the attraction of pollinators like butterflies and other beneficial insects, for example. In some cases centered around a tree, each Guild Kit design comes with instructions and an 8.5"x11" or 11"x17" plan that illustrates how to plant and care for your food, restoration,or other* Guild. 

For every Guild Kit design that you purchase, I will donate 10% of the money to procuring and installing a Guild for a low-income family in the Portland area for free. If you are or know of a family who could benefit from this community service program, please refer them to me. Interested candidates can request an application by sending me an email. The application process is simple and straight-forward. 

*More Kits are in the development stages and will be available soon. [Patent/Copyright/Trademark Pending.]

What are Green-Aides?

Green-Aides are earthen balls containing seeds and soil nutrients.  I make them and provide recipes for Guerrilla Gardening projects.  The balls are to be placed by hand or lodged into the air over targeted areas, depending on their function (the recipe). 

Several recipes are available for different restoration projects.  Riparian Green-Aides are designed to jump-start natural reclamation of degraded and invaded river and creek ecosystems through introduction of Native plant guilds or communities.  Pond Green-Aides are to be hand placed along shorelines of degraded ponds and lakes.  Meadow Green-Aides are for dry meadow ecosystem regeneration.  Wet Prairie Green-Aides re-inject Native wet prairie areas with appropriate plant groups.  Forest Green-Aides build up the Native under story for healthy woodland ecosystems.

Each Green-Aides package contains specialized ingredient lists for soil and seeds and instructions for making and distributing them.  Packaged sets of 15 to 30 Green-Aides each can be purchased by sending me an email including the type of project you want to do and its location, your address, the number of Green-Aides you would like, and your project time line.

Schools may find Green-Aides a fun way to teach young people about natural systems, and ecological groups may want to use Green-Aides to do restoration work or for fund raising.

For every Green-Aides Project Recipe that you purchase, I will donate 10% of the money to making and distributing an equal amount of Green-Aides in the Portland area where I live. This might include actual Guerrilla Gardening projects of my own or for use by other local activist groups.  If you know of a group who could benefit from this Nature service program, please refer them to me. Interested groups can send me an email including the type of project they want to do and its location, their address, the number of Green-Aides they would like, and their project time line. 

A few years after coming up with the idea to design specific native seed bomb recipes for diverse climates, I developed them for Green Tree, a company offering Nature education programs to kids throughout the United States and fund-raising opportunities for non-profit groups via reforestation.  Kids who learn how to use Green-Aides, which come packed with pre-planted Native seed guilds, have the power to reclaim vast damaged lands.  Let's teach them how to get their hands dirty! 

For the D.I.Y.-minded, I recently found the following video that describes my vision beautifully.  Please note:  Introducing non-native and habitat-inappropriate seeds into natural or abandoned areas would be irresponsible and could cause invasion by exotic species, loss of Native diversity, property damage, and other problems.  Please choose plants very carefully if you decide to D.I.Y.!

Prices

Guild Kits.....$100 

Green-Aides Packages (Includes a set of 15 to 30 Green-Aides containing seeds guilded for a specific climate zone and habitat in your bioregion and an original recipe & seed list to use indefinitely).....$150

Green-Aides Recipes with Instructions (Includes a tailored list of seeds guilded for a specific climate zone and habitat in your bioregion to be used indefinitely).....$100