When I first started planting flowers, I noticed more bugs in the garden. At first, I was mostly thinking about the plants themselves. I wanted to watch them grow, see the flowers open, and understand how to care for them. But as more insects began showing up, I started realizing that the garden was becoming something more than a collection of plants that I had chosen.
It was becoming a place where other living things could find something they needed.
I was happy to know I could support more than just myself. I don’t need to feel like I created something important or take credit for it. I believe I am simply doing the work God intended by caring for what has been placed around me and allowing the Earth to do what it naturally does.
The More I Looked, the More I Found
Once I started noticing insects in the garden, I became curious about them. I began looking into the different bugs I was seeing and was surprised by how many different kinds there were, especially beetles.
I think that was another part of gardening that changed me. Instead of seeing an insect and immediately deciding that it was something that needed to be removed, I started wondering what it was and what it was doing.
Insects are helpful by pollinating flowers, eating other insects, and they can feed on plants we dont need. There are little critters that live in or around the soil helping break down organic material. Others become food for birds and other animals.
The University of Minnesota Extension describes soil as a living ecosystem containing bacteria, fungi, nematodes, insects, earthworms, and many other organisms. Insects and other small organisms can help break organic material into smaller pieces, while microorganisms continue the decomposition process that makes nutrients available to plants.
Learning things like this made it harder for me to look at a garden as simply a place where I grow the things I want.
Butterflies, Bees, and the Flowers They Find
Butterflies are probably my favorite visitors in the garden, although I enjoy seeing bees too.
I love watching a butterfly move through the garden and seeing which flowers it chooses. There is something about watching it land on a flower that makes me stop and pay attention to what is happening instead of thinking about what I need to do next.
Bees give me that same feeling.
Flowers aren’t just beautiful decorations in a garden. They can provide nectar and pollen for pollinators, and many flowering plants depend on animals to move pollen from one flower to another so the plants can reproduce. Minnesota is home to more than 500 species of bees, and native bees need food, nesting places, and places to survive the winter.
When I see a bee using a flower I planted, I like knowing that the plant is providing something useful to another living creature.
I may have planted the flower because I liked it, but I don’t have to be the only one who benefits from it. That is one of the things I love about gardening.
I Don’t Need to Control Everything
The longer I garden, the more I have come to believe that I don’t need to control every part of the garden.
I can put plants in the ground, give them the conditions they need, observe what happens, and allow other parts of nature to participate.
That doesn’t mean I never protect my plants.
I learned that lesson with the deer.
I wasn’t happy when the deer started eating the crops I was trying to grow. I wanted to eat the corn myself, so I tried to find a way to keep them out. I started with a scarecrow, but that didn’t work for very long. Eventually, I built a fence out of sticks, and that did a much better job of keeping the deer away.
But then the corn developed southern rust.
Southern rust is a fungal disease caused by Puccinia polysora. In Minnesota, the fungus cannot survive the winter, so the spores have to travel north from areas farther south. Warm, humid conditions can favor its development.
I remember thinking that maybe the corn would have been better used as food for the deer after all.
That experience stayed with me because it reminded me that I can try to protect something, but I can’t control every outcome. The garden has its own processes, and sometimes things happen that I never planned for.
Making Room Doesn’t Mean Giving Up on Your Garden
When I talk about making room for the small creatures in the garden, I don’t mean that I think every insect should be allowed to destroy a plant or that I should never protect something I am growing.
I think it means learning to understand the difference between something being present and something actually being a problem.
An insect sitting on a plant doesn’t automatically mean the plant is in danger. Some insects cause damage, while others pollinate flowers, eat other insects, recycle organic matter, or become part of the food web.
Even plant damage from insects isn’t always life-threatening to the plant. The University of Minnesota Extension recommends understanding what is actually happening before deciding on a management approach and notes that some insect damage can be cosmetic rather than seriously harming a plant.
That is why I want to observe before I react. I want to know what I am looking at.
I want to understand what the insect is doing and what is happening with the plant before I decide that something needs to be removed.
Sometimes I Plant for the Things I Don’t Eat
One thing I have come to enjoy is adding plants to the garden that I don’t necessarily grow for myself.
I like having flowers and other plants that provide food or habitat for insects and other creatures. They don’t all have to produce something that I can harvest and eat.
Sometimes their purpose can simply be to become part of the larger garden.
I have also become interested in the relationships between different plants and insects. There are many gardening claims about companion planting, but some of them are much better supported than others. The University of Minnesota notes that many popular companion-planting claims aren’t backed by research and that results can vary depending on the plants and pests involved.
Instead of believing every gardening chart I see, I want to watch what happens in my own garden and continue learning what is supported by evidence.
Putting Myself in Their Place
One of the ways I think about the creatures in my garden is by trying to imagine what the garden might look like from their perspective.
If I were a butterfly and I found a flower full of nectar, I would be grateful to have found food.
If I were a bee searching for flowers, I would want to find a place where I could gather what I needed.
If I were a small creature moving through the garden, I would want to find food, shelter, and a place where I could continue living.
I know that I am putting myself into an imaginative perspective because I can’t actually know what another creature feels or thinks. Thinking about the garden this way helps me remember that I am not the only one looking for something there.
The plants and creatures are all trying to meet their own needs.
And when I can provide something that helps another living thing, I feel happy knowing that the garden is supporting more than just me.
The Nightshade That I Didn’t Plant
One of the moments that really made me understand how connected the garden was came when I noticed nightshade berries growing in my yard.
Seeing a plant grow that I hadn’t intentionally put there made me think differently about the garden. Something had happened beyond my own planning. A seed had arrived, found a place where it could grow, and become part of the landscape.
I may choose some of the plants, prepare the soil, add compost, plant seeds, and decide where things will grow, but I am working within a much larger system. I don’t have to create every part of the garden for it to become a garden. I was able to make room for some of it to happen.
One important note about nightshade is that the name refers to a group of plants, and some species can be toxic. Black nightshade, for example, occurs in Minnesota and produces berries that change from green to black as they mature. Because species can be difficult to identify, unknown berries should not be eaten.
For me, the important part of seeing that plant wasn’t whether I wanted to keep it. It was realizing that something had entered the garden without my planning and had become another part of the living environment around me.
Making Room for Life
To me, making room means allowing the Earth to care for the things I grow.
I don’t have to worry about every small thing if I have enough to eat and I have the beauty around me to appreciate.
I understand that not everything in the garden has to belong to me. Sometimes I can plant something specifically for myself, something because I enjoy looking at it, or because I know another creature might use it.
I don’t think I need to know exactly what will happen every time I put a plant in the ground. I can make a good choice, provide the right environment, pay attention, and then allow the garden to become what it is going to become.
That is what I love about gardening.
A Garden Is a Shared Place
When I sit in my garden and watch the butterflies, bees, beetles, and other small creatures moving through the plants, I feel like I am watching a whole ecosystem I am apart of.
The plants provide food and shelter. The insects interact with the plants. The soil provides a place for roots and countless organisms. The flowers provide resources for pollinators. Other animals may visit and find something they need.
It is a shared place.
And I think that is one of the most beautiful lessons gardening has given me.
I don’t have to own every part of it to appreciate it.
I don’t have to control every part of it to care for it.
I can simply participate, plant, observe, learn, protect what needs protecting, and I can leave room for the small things.
Making room for the little creatures, reminds me that I am part of something much bigger than myself.
Growing Grounded Tip: The next time you see an unfamiliar insect in your garden, try observing it before deciding what to do about it. Look at what it is eating, where it is located, what the plant looks like, and whether there is actual damage occurring. You may discover that the creature you were about to remove has a role in the garden that you didn’t know about.
Sweetpea Growing Grounded
Plant care with curiosity. Gardening with intention. Growing together.
Woodbury, Minnesota
