LEAF ‘N FLOWER MIXED SALAD

SUPPER. Lasagna, Garden Leaf ‘N Flower Mixed Salad, canned White Peaches w-1 fresh Garden Strawberry

Today I mixed the fish emulsion fertilizer and started spraying my veggie beds with it:

While I was out there, yesterday’s forecasted rain started blowing in; by the time I reached my blueberry bushes, it had started drizzling, so it was time to get inside before I got too wet and invited a cold – the last thing I need right now is to get sick …

So, I put everything back in the shed and came back inside and watched the drizzle for a while. I am thinking I may have to start a few veggie beds all over again – it has been constant drizzle here and my raised beds are saturated … but my rain barrels are pretty much STILL empty as there has not been sufficient rainfall to fill them, though there is apparently enough rainfall to ruin the garden in certain beds.

And the sunshine is weird too when the sun finally decides to peek out of the gray clouds. There is not enough sunshine lately to dry anything out or to make my plants happy.

Strange weather :-(

At some point I slid into a short nap:

I never used to nap, but since Bob graduated, I seem to have taken on HIS sleeping pattern of getting up at the crack of dawn and going to bed around 9 or 10 p.m.; which means I usually end up taking a short 15-minute-nap around noon. IT is strange! All my life, until December 14^th, 2018, I have been a night-bird staying up into the wee early morning hours – sometimes falling into bed as the sun was dawning; and sleeping until noon.

Bob was a very understanding husband ;-)

When I eventually woke after my 15-minute-shut eye, I noticed the drizzle had fizzled, and the sky was beginning to lighten up …

Can you see me Babe? I love you. Always. ~OX

Time to go finish up outside ...

So, I pulled my boots on and finished up fertilizing the remaining veggie beds. Everything should be doing waaay better than they are – maybe the fertilizing this afternoon will help; so far, only the cababge family plants are doing well. Everything else is either stunted or limping along in water-logged soil and yo-yoing weather (between 70 & 45 daytime temperatures: insane overnight variances) with yellowing leaves. I am pretty sure the pepper plants are toast.

While I was out there, I got to thinking that a fresh green salad would taste good with my left-over lasagna for Supper (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/06/getting-stuff-done.html). But I wanted some color in my salad. What to do? The tomatoes have been set back with the weird weather patterns, so there would be no colorful tomatoes to add, and my onions haven’t matured yet either. Hmm. I looked around and remembered reading that nasturtium leaves and violas can be added to salad greens; so, tonight I am trying something new – new to me, anyway. I plucked a few pretty bicolored nasturtium leaves (to me, they smell a little spicy – not hot spicy, but kinda peppery), some fragrant little Johnny-Jump Up Viola blossoms, and pulled some chive leaves too. I snagged a lone strawberry on the way past the strawberry jar too ;-)

I had picked some mustard leaves & leaf lettuce the other day/washed it/stored it in the crisper; so while the lasagna was in the oven, I pulled that out of the ‘fridge and started adding my fresh additions:

Heart shaped Deer Tongue Lettuce leaf

I also opened my Weight Watchers cookbook and whipped up this quick and easy Basic Vinaigrette Dressing for the salad …

==BASIC VINAIGRETTE SALAD DRESSING ~Makes 4 servings

1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Olive (or vegetable) Oil * 1 Tablespoon White Wine Vinegar * 1/8 teaspoon EA Salt & prepared Mustard

Combine all ingredients; mix well.

Per serving: 42 calories; 0 g protein; 5 g fat; 0 g carbohydrate; 78 mg sodium