Permaculture Skills: Tree Guild and Perennial Plants
October 10 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Hillsborough, NC
This workshop is part of our Fall 2026 Permaculture Skills series.
Learn to plant symbiotic, self-maintaining communities of plants that support you and eachother in growing well.
In Permaculture, guilds are a way to plant a multi-functional community of plants that support each other in growing and thriving.
The heart of the forest garden is a tree guild, where a tree doesn’t simply stand alone, but exists in a web of beneficial relationships. The result is self-maintaining, useful, and beautiful.
The same little patch of earth can support pollinators, bring in its own fertility through nitrogen-fixing plants, have its own mulch through “chop and drop” biomass plants, balance insect and disease pressure through aromatic and host plants, and of course, give food and medicine to the people tending the tree (…you!).
Guild and polyculture design doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, learning it is a great way to learn about a whole lot more useful plants and the patterns of plants, including plant families.
After we learn about guilds, we’ll go right outside and plant some to enrich Jubilee Healing Farm’s young food forest!
If you’ve ever wondered how to design guilds and polycultures, or just want to learn a lot of interesting and useful new perennial plants for our area, this workshop is for you!
Topics include:
- What the heck is a guild and why does it matter?
- The types of plant uses and some local examples of each
- A new design game we invented for this workshop making tree guild design simple- you will get how to do this yourself after trying it!
- Hands-on practice designing and planting tree guilds in a young food forest!
- Polycultures in the garden – planting annuals and perennials that are happy together
- …plus, learn a whole lot of interesting perennial plants, including edible and medicinal perennials you can grow
Venue and Workshop Details
Our workshop is held at Jubilee Healing Farm – a beautifully tended small farm located on 10 acres in Hillsborough, NC that supports volunteer and community-building activities and workshops for people seeking healing.
We’ll have the workshop part inside and part outside unless the weather disagrees! Please wear comfortable clothing for the day. If it’s going to rain a little, bring rain gear. A little rain is very helpful for Permaculture design!
We’ll likely do a little forest walking. Good to wear compatible footwear. If you’re concerned about ticks or other itchy expressions of the local ecology, please bring non-toxic insect deterrent.
What to Bring:
- Notebook and pen
- Water bottle
- Seeds or plants to swap if you have any you want to share.
Also:
- Openness to different ways of seeing and living
- Kindness towards the plants, animals, soil, water, and other people here
- Inclusivity and welcoming spirit towards the people in the workshop
- Willingness to put your phones away and tune into your senses
- Curiosity about life and what each other and the land has to say
Sign-Up
We offer our tickets at a reduced rate for people experiencing significant financial need. Thank you for supporting this work.
This afternoon workshop is part of our Fall 2026 Permaculture Skills series. In the morning of the same day, we’re having a Food Forest workshop and tour in nearby Chapel Hill. Join us for one or both!
About the Facilitator:
Matthew “Watersong” Tracy started practicing Permaculture in 2011 and received his design certificate from Wild Abundance in 2015. He has been consulting and teaching as a Permaculture Designer since 2018.
Along the way, he learned from numerous Permaculture teachers, tended land with minimal inputs, worked with around 70 clients on their land, lived off-grid for a decade, and made (… and still makes!) a whole lot of humbling and valuable mistakes on his way back to life in harmony with the earth.
Matt is also an herbalist (…in training, like all herbalists..!) and has been putting strong-tasting plants in bottles to make helpful things happen since 2007. He prepares dozens of local herbal medicines for his community every year.
With all that experience, Matt is ever a beginner and student of the land. Nature is infinite. What can we do but listen and try?
Matt is honored to be a Permaculture guide to anyone interested in coming a little closer to the earth. Becoming a father in 2023 has made passing down these teachings that always consider future generations more important than ever.
Read the rest of Matt’s bio here.
