Is it a bug or a feature?

Jill Severn

A quest to establish cordial relations with insects and bugs led me to “Insects and Gardens: In Pursuit of a Garden Ecology,” by Eric Grissell.

“Insects, at an estimated weight of 27 billion tons, outweigh the human population by about six times” he writes. He qualifies this assertion by noting “I’m not certain how people find the time to make these measurements, but I guess they might nearly be true.”

If insects outweigh us that much, we certainly better have cordial relations with them.

I wonder, though, how they make those measurements. I imagine all those insects lined up, like little army recruits, ready to be weighed. Those researchers must have really tiny scales.

I also often wonder why scientists come up with gee-whiz data like this, and why so many people readily accept it as truth.

Here’s another example: Grissell reports – also with a bit of skepticism – that insects comprise 80 percent of the earth’s animal species, and that an estimated 2 to 30 million more species remain to be discovered if they aren’t exterminated first.

How can scientists estimate how many millions more will be discovered? And how would anyone know if a species had been exterminated before it was discovered?

But really, these are not the most important questions for gardeners. We want to know how to live in harmony with insects and their ilk (like spiders, sow bugs, slugs and centipedes) while protecting the plants we’re growing.

That is what Grissell calls pursuing a “garden ecology.”

Gardeners like to think we do no harm, but we don’t always know when we’re doing it. It’s especially easy to harm the littlest creatures – some so small they are invisible to the naked eye; others so small you have to be down on your knees to see them in the soil, or standing still long enough to examine who’s laying eggs on the underside of a leaf.

If you were very serious, you could spend every waking hour doing research in your garden and consulting books about entomology, botany, soil science, chemistry and the like to solve insect-related garden mysteries.

If you are serious, but not that serious, you could read Eric Grissell’s book. He delivers a master class on insects and their ilk, and is an engaging, clever explainer of the unfathomable complexity of all those creatures and their relationships with each other and our gardens.

That is immensely useful information for a gardener, even if we only really remember a fraction of it.

Grissell is also a persuasive advocate for a more naturalistic, relaxed and organic approach to gardening – an approach that seems to be already commonly accepted and practiced. But this book may be one reason why: It was first published in 2001. Today, its advocacy might read like preachy packaging for the solid lessons on scores of insects’ diverse biology, life cycles and relationships with our plants.

But its real value is its bigger lesson, repeated in many ways: Gardeners and the earth will both do better if we embrace the complexity of all our planet’s life, including the diversity and complexity of its smallest inhabitants – even the ones too small to see. The more complex our gardens are – that is, the more diverse our plantings – the more complex and diverse the insect and other animal forms our gardens can help support.

It’s a lot to learn about. No one book will ever answer all our questions about the little critters in our gardens, but this one does provide a solid grounding in what to look for, what to look at, what to look up.

This book and Google and are likely enough for the serious but not obsessive gardener.

Even more to learn

TJ Johnson, the proprietor of Urban Futures Farm, is offering a two-Sunday afternoon course in vegetable gardening on March 10 and 17. The curriculum includes:

• Site Selection
• Understanding and improving your soil
• Selecting seeds
• Propagating, transplanting and direct seeding
• Rotations and companion planting
• Selecting the right tools
• Irrigation
• Composting
• Dealing with pests and disease
• Season extension

TJ has been growing his own food for over 35 years, including the last 10 years as the owner of Urban Futures Farm, a regenerative, community-focused farm in the heart of Olympia.

He taught food and agricultural policy at The Evergreen State College, served two terms on the Olympia City Council and is currently chair of the Thurston Conservation District Board.

Cost for the classes is $50.

Jill Severn writes from her home in Olympia, where she grows vegetables, flowers, and a small flock of chickens. She loves conversation among gardeners. Start one by emailing her at  jill@theJOLTnews.com