Wild plants thrive in dense, diverse communities, but that’s rarely how we grow our vegetables; this session will explore some of the lessons learnt from 3 seasons of growing annual vegetables in dense polycultures. Using a Natural Farming framework, it will explore the theory and benefits of growing in polycultures (improved soil health and fertility, increased productivity per area, biodiversity benefits, etc.), including reliable combinations, as well as exploring some of its challenges. Participants will then be encouraged to think in groups about how and why they would introduce polycultures into their own growing systems, including getting everyone to design their own polyculture bed.