Spring Lettuces, Wild-Growing Lemon Balm, and a Bonsai Gift From Mother Earth

While gardening this weekend, I happened upon a gorgeous baby cedar tree (about 6 inches tall) that sprouted up under the mature cedars and planted it in sand and soil in a small bonsai pot.

Our lettuce beds are going strong!

I plucked a few sprigs of wild-growing lemon balm for rooting. It roots easily, and you can’t have enough of it in summer.

Sunday lunch: Spanish rice surrounded by baby greens. We also made toasted coconut tofu.

Despite the temperatures, which are going to hover around a cool 60 degrees for the next couple of weeks, we got some garden work done this weekend.

The purple sweet potato slips have been planted! Completely psyched about getting a harvest of these in autumn. It’s a little early (and cool outside) to plant them, but they were more than ready and needed to go into the soil. I covered them with a poly tunnel to keep them as warm as possible.

We planted sunflower seeds here and there around the house, planted morning glory seeds at the arbor, and put in some catnip for the neighborhood cats. It was a day of great nature finds: I discovered some lemon balm growing wild in the woods next to the house, and; I happened upon a gorgeous baby cedar tree (about 6 inches tall) that sprouted up under the mature cedars.

I plucked a few sprigs of the lemon balm for rooting. Lemon balm roots easily, and you can’t have enough of it in summer. It gives everything a fresh lemon flavor and makes an awesome sun tea (try it with some lavender).

I carefully dug up the cedar (getting the long tap root out of the ground without damaging it is tricky) and planted it in sand and soil in a small bonsai pot. I gave it a feeding and did a little shaping with rubber bands. A bonsai gift from the Earth.

Our lettuce beds are suddenly going strong. Lettuce does this thing where it starts so slowly you wonder if it’s ever going to be ready to eat, to now you have a carpet of lettuce that you can’t possibly get through. So, we’ll be giving lettuce away again this year. Abundance. Thank you, Mother Earth!

We also did some rad eating this weekend. On Saturday, my amazing husband took us out for a great dinner at a new restaurant called Gibson’s. The chef there is so great. He made me a vegan eggplant dish and a salad that were both insanely delicious.

On Sunday, we made two great meals at home: a mono meal of toasted coconut tofu, and homemade Spanish rice surrounded by baby greens. Great alchemy in the kitchen!

And for some reason, yesterday felt like a big tea day, so I drank several cups of hot black tea, chai, and a delicious green Genmaicha with brown rice.

And I did some more hooping. Woke up this morning with a bit of an achy back, which tells me that I should be doing more hooping.

Live in peace.