I'm in the garden almost every day. Almost 40 hours in total since the beginning of April. It's my new favourite transition activity before dinner. I plant, water, pick off bugs. I'm beginning to learn what leaves feel like when they haven't gotten enough water and when they have. The oregano, mint, cilantro, basil, and lettuce are growing much better than they did in previous years. None of the snow peas have made it indoors yet, since I've been eating them off the vine. The tomatoes, zucchini, winter melons, and bitter melons haven't hit their stride yet, but maybe during the hotter months.

I like filling the salad spinner with cut-and-come-again leaves. I should let some of the plants go to seed so that I can collect them for the next batch, but it's too tempting to snip off the flowers in order to keep the current batch going. I planted a salad mix, so I have no idea what some of these are. I know bok choy, spinach, arugula. Peppery and red-veined? Probably beet greens. I'm relying on frequency here. If there's a lot of a type of plant, it grows in a somewhat regular formation, and I don't already conclusively know it's a weed, it's probably okay to eat. So far, so good.

I have salad every other day or so. Today I had three small bowls of salad all by myself (W- had the other bowl). I shook up a quick Asian-style dressing in a small mason jar and sprinkled sesame seeds on top. We don't normally buy those boxes of salad mix, since I feel guilty about not finishing them before they have to go. If it's still growing, I don't mind, although I try to harvest leaves before the slugs and leaf-miners get to them.

The salad garden is doing so much better this year compared to last year. Frequent watering and frequent harvesting, that's probably the ticket. I should make pesto this week. Maybe Wednesday. Basil likes being harvested often, too. =) I've been picking flowers off every day, but there are definitely enough leaves here to make a good-sized batch of pesto.

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