🌱 The Truth About Gardening: What the Bugs, Weeds & Waiting Teach Us About Ourselves

Eric & Maleka Beal
Jul 7
3 min read

Everyone wants the harvest. Nobody talks about the gnats.

Let’s talk about the part of gardening no one posts on Instagram.

The fungus gnats flying in your face. The weeds popping up outta nowhere. The basil that was thriving on Tuesday and flatlined by Friday. That container you forgot to poke drainage holes in—and now your spinach is swimming.

Yeah. That part.

Here at Camp 8 Garden, we keep it real. Because truthfully? Gardening ain’t always peaceful. Sometimes it’s frustrating. Sometimes it’s boring. Sometimes it feels like you're doing everything right and still…nothing’s growing.

And that’s where the lesson is.

Because whether you’re growing herbs, healing your health, rebuilding your life, or just trying to stay consistent—the hard parts are the harvest. Not just the sprouting and blooming. But the tenacity it takes to stay in it.

So, let’s talk about the real stuff:The nuisances. The setbacks. The things that test your patience and make you question why you even started.

And what they might be trying to teach you.

🌾 1. The Weeds = Distractions That Look Like Growth

Weeds don’t ask permission. They pop up overnight and steal resources from what you actually planted. Just like the mental clutter, side distractions, or self-doubt that creeps in when you’re trying to stay on track. Weeds can look like something important, but really they’re just taking up space.

✨Lesson: If you don’t make time to check in, the weeds will take over quietly. Pull them early.

🐛 2. The Bugs = Irritations You Didn’t See Coming

One day, everything looks great. Next thing you know, aphids are throwing a party on your collards. That’s life. The unexpected always shows up: the critique, the delay, the family drama, the missed opportunity. You can’t always avoid it, but you can build resilience.

✨Lesson: Don’t let a few bugs stop you from growing. Sometimes growth means learning how to protect your peace and still push through.

💧 3. Overwatering = Doing Too Much

Let’s be honest, we’ve all drowned a plant in love. Hovering. Checking it every 2 hours. Giving it more because we’re afraid we’re not doing enough. Sound familiar? This is what happens when we stop trusting the process. In life and in the soil.

✨Lesson: More effort isn’t always better. Sometimes you need to back off and let the roots do their thing.

☁️ 4. Not Enough Sun = When You’re Not Feeling It

Some days your plant isn’t drooping, but it’s not growing either. Why? It needs light. Energy. Warmth. You too. If you’ve been stuck, tired, unmotivated, it doesn’t always mean something’s wrong. You might just need a shift in your environment. Find the light. Turn toward it.

✨Lesson: Growth requires the right conditions. Protect your energy like you protect your plants.

🐝 5. No Pollination = Trusting What You Can’t See

You did everything right. Watered. Planted. Pruned. And still, no fruit. This one hurts. Because waiting on the harvest with nothing to show for it? That tests you. Sometimes you’re growing in ways you can’t see yet. Pollination is invisible. But it’s happening.

✨Lesson: Just because you can’t see the results doesn’t mean your effort is wasted. Something is taking root. Keep tending.

🌿 Back to That Basil…

Remember Blog 1? When we said basil was an easy herb? Let us revise: basil is simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s effortless. You still have to water it, check the leaves, move it to the sun. It might get leggy. Or drop leaves. Or bolt. And you still show up.

That’s what this whole journey is about. Start where you are. Use what you have. Grow something, even when it’s hard.

If you always got the harvest without the hardship, how would you ever know what you’re made of? The truth is: the harvest is beautiful, but the process is what grows you.

So next time your mint looks funky or your seeds take forever to sprout, don’t give up. Laugh. Learn. And lean in. Because you, like your garden, were built to grow through what disrupts you.