Happiness in the small things

My garden is flourishing and I am always amazed at the rush I get when I spend time with it. Here's my bird's eye view: The herbs in a row are happy as clams. They are growing like crazy, and it is such a pleasure to be able to go out and pick exactly what you want to put into dinner. Above is my beautiful mellissa plant (the big fluffy one in the middle). If you don't know this herb it is really lovely. It has a strong lemon scent - completely different than lemon grass. I went to the herbiary yesterday and distilled drops sell for $69. per bottle. That's about $1/drop! But it is pure heaven. Probably the most expensive whiff of anything I've ever put my nose close to. What an indulgence. While I can't afford that - I can stick my nose in the bush in my yard whenever I want to - or cook with it (it adds nice flavor to rice) and I also like to put it in my apricot sauce. mmmm. On the left is thyme and to the right is parsley and then a rosemary bush.
Below is the other half of the row, from left to right: chives, basil, dill (very faint), sage, and green onions (purple poof flowers). I'm also trying my hand at collard greens - they apparently like water - go figure. I say that because they were in the ground for a week not doing anything, turning yellow and then I soaked them and they perked up. Duh.
And the onion flowers. They are so beautiful! The bees really like them too. That's going to make for some funky tasting honey, maybe. So Matt, my partner in crime from the food symposium, keeps bees. I told him in return for honey he could totally park his hives in my back yard. I hope he takes me up on the offer. I have to think about what to plant for yummy tasting honey - we'll have to consult if it works out. The bees really like my echinacea flowers (see top), and the clover that is growing all over the lawn. I have a completely new outlook on my "lawn" after the symposium. I walk around on it and see totally different things in it now. I was going to try to re-seed the lawn with some real grass this summer, but now I think I want to keep it more along the lines of a "tamed meadow". I think I might try a weed salad tonight. I haven't done it yet. But the one plant I've yanked out in hand fulls has flourished by the tomatoes. So I'll yank it out again... The advise on the wild foodies website is to go easy. Eat only a little at first to see how it agrees with you. This is probably good advice since I was going to just go through the garden and pick a whole variety. I'll try them one at a time, see what happens.