Insects and Gardens

Eric Grissell (writer) and Carll Goodpasture (photographer). Insects and Gardens. Timber Press. 2001.

Insects and Gardens fills an important niche in the long list of garden books available today. Grissell states:

I believe that the more naturalistic a garden becomes, the more enjoyable it is for the gardener; the more enjoyable the garden becomes, the easier it is for the gardener to manage; and the easier the garden becomes to manage, the more likely the gardener is to encourage it to become more naturalistic. [Page 14].

He goes on to explain that insects, good and bad, are essential to the garden's success. Oh no. I can almost see the red flags going up and gardeners saying, "the only good bug is a dead bug" or some other simplistic statement about the insects they encounter on their precious plants. If you are one of those people, please stay with me until the end of today's review. Gardeners really need to revise their attitude towards insects.

Part 1 -- Lives of the Insects

The author is careful to differentiate between the insects and other garden critters. Then he goes on to identify the different orders of insects we are likely to find in our garden. I love the way he explains what makes an insect a beetle instead of a true bug or wasp or other insect. I collected insects throughout my childhood and as a teenager. Although I studied many nature guides, I never had a clear picture of why a butterfly is a butterfly instead of a beetle or other insect. Chapter 2 explains these differences in detail. Insects are arthropods. You'll find some excellent drawings showing the different arthropods found in gardens between chapter 2 and chapter 3. Studying these three pages carefully will help you break the habit of calling every thing that crawls an insect.

Insects may experience simple, complete, or intermediate metamorphosis. Some insects produce one-sex generations. Understanding the social behavior of insects can be important to protecting yourself while working in the garden. Another topic a gardener must understand is how insects feed. This understanding will help you identify the type insects living in your garden based only on the damage they do to your plants. Insects may be predators, hunting down the "bad bugs" while others suck or chew your plants. It is important to distinguish among the different insects so you don't kill off the good bugs when you really want to destroy the bad bugs. Chapters 3 and 4 explain everything you need to know about the growth cycle, and feeding habits of the critters you are most likely to find in your garden. Spend some time getting acquainted with this information.

Part 2 -- The Ecology of Gardening

Insects play a vital role in the world of our garden. They serve as food for toads, frogs, salamanders and even other insects. Insects also help clean up our garden by eating decaying plants (compost piles). Can you imagine what would happen if no insects existed to eat decaying flesh of animals killed by cars or natural causes? We would be buried under dead bodies fairly quickly. Do you grow some prize vegetables? Without insects, you'd have nothing to eat since pollination is required for vegetable or fruit production. Read chapters five through nine to learn more about the importance of insects in our world. Yes, there are some problem insects but if we achieve the balance of nature discussed in this part, there will be fewer problems.

Part 3 -- Insects and Humans: The Gardener's Perspective

The last 5 chapters (10-14) may contain the most important words ever written about gardening. Grissell is actually encouraging gardeners to increase the diversity of plants in their gardens so that the numbers of insects will increase. He strongly discourages some of today's garden patterns -- rows of iris or daylilies -- since they strongly resemble the millions of acres of cornfields or other crops. This type gardening actually encourages insect problems since large quantities of any single plants are easier to find by the insects. He does encourage having a wide variety of plants in the garden. This may mean allowing the soil in our yards to remain as they exist instead of "improving the soil" as taught by so many horticulture experts. We need those areas that are wet, sandy, stony, and even full of clay to provide the proper habitats for the different plants.

Another practice the author encourages is leaving dead leaves and other organic debris right where it falls, or to use it as mulch around our plants. What did I say? Yes, he wants us to leave this in our gardens to provide shelter for over-wintering insects. You won't find this in most other gardening books!

Grissell spends the remainder of this book trying to help gardeners get over our natural fear of insects and other critters. Since I have little fear of anything other than hornets (allergic to their stings), I can't judge whether the information he presents will really convince the gardener with strong fears of insects. I can tell you the information makes sense.

General Contents

Bar none, this is the best garden book I have read that was published in 2001. I love the author's writing style -- he has presented his information in clear, easy to understand language. I enjoyed his stories from his own experiences with insects. I have never seen a book with such beautiful pictures of insects. One of my favorites is a close-up shot of a katydid's head. You know, insects really are beautiful if we take the time to study them and appreciate their role in the world.

I must emphatically suggest that you buy this book. The price tag isn't a lot of money for a book this valuable. I believe it will be difficult to return to traditional gardening styles after reading it. You just may want to have a few dragonflies hovering over your yard, or even a few solitary bees living in an old tree since they will help pollinate your crops and flowers.

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