I think of my yard as "The Garden of the Good Intentions." Another gardener friend says it more bluntly - "my intentions are good but my execution stinks." Photos are terrible at showing the hoses, scattered pots, weeds, whatever. The heart sees the beauty that is there, or is dreamed of. Your garden looks good to me! Who cares about the trash bag, or tarp??? Out here, where it doesn't rain from May - Oct, every bit of lushness is a treat. People would kill for those hostas. My "Rooguci" clematis is a spindly little thing, and yours is so lovely - I've finally figured out that clematis wants way more moisture than I'm ever going to give them! Anita

I have ate whole habs. Numerous times, but even with my high tolerance they can be painful. The caribbean reds and chocolate habs are really gnarly. My whole head feels hot except my tongue that feels numb/ on fire (if that makes any sense). IMHO if you truly want the enjoy the flavor of the habs (which is fantastic) cooking is your best bet. I use them in anything you would put peppers in/on. Spaghetti sauce, burritos, on pizza after it's cooked (great use), chili, burgers, etc. I love hab burgers, either topped with habs, or cut into strips and mixed with the ground beef. Mmmmmmm. Just make sure to wash your hands!!! I did a lazy job of washing my hands after chopping some chocolate habs and went to take a leak 20 minutes later. Holy s--t. BAD IDEA. -HabBob

He's not really a good guy but I don't think he'll hurt your strawberries (I'm sure more knowledgeable folks will let you know!). He looks like an immature stink bug of some sort. The strawberry looks a little shiny, like it's covered in dried snail or slug slime. Does it look that way in person?

Grasshoppers will chomp some of the leaves on your your roses. While a single grasshopper is not the worst pest, they can become problematic when there are many of them. If you have one grasshopper in a huge rose bush that always grows like wild, I wouldn't worry about it, but if the grasshopper is feeding on a small rose bush that you care about, I would move him to the other side of the yard. Grasshoppers do help attract colorful birds.