I like the concept of #permacultures. Though I am struggling to find the right mix that is suitable for me.
Discussion
Mark Shepard recommends observing the plants local to your area and how they interact for inspiration on designing #polycultures.
What grows like a weed? What grows amongst those prolific plants? What's growing in the ditches and along the edges of fields? What are people already growing successfully?
For example, I noticed lots of people growing grapes, as well as lots of wild grapes in my area, I also noticed black alders proliferating at a neighbors property even with the pressure from the wild grape. So I planted black alders and grew cultivated grape varieties up them. I also saw tons of asparagus growing in the ditches, so I planted asparagus at the base of the alders. I found gooseberries growing wild in the closed canopy forest near me so I planted gooseberry on the north side of the alder so it would stay in the shade. Also, most of my neighbors were growing rhubarb so I figured I couldn't go wrong adding that in. There were lots of u-pick strawberry farms near me so I chose strawberry as the ground cover.
Try to take plants you have local access to and plant them together as you can observe them interacting in the wild. That would be my recommendation on how to start thinking about selecting plants and building your own polycultures that suit your situation.