garden salad deluxe

this is the kind of salad that makes you feel pretty on the inside and out. what i like to do is go into the garden with a large bowl and pair of shears and take snippets of just about everything. in this salad there are rose petals, marigold petals, bindweed flowers, fennel, sage, rosemary,thyme, oregano, lavender, lemon balm, apple mint, pineapple sage, purslane, rose geranium, chives, and, of course, lettuce. this gives my salad a variety of different essential minerals and vitamins. when cutting the rose petals, make sure to cut them right above the white part of the petal- the bitter white part is not so tasty. when first starting out making yourself posh salads, start out small. taste what you like and don't like. some herbs have a very strong taste, while others are more delicate. it's a good idea to use only a little of purslane or bindweed. purslane, like cleavers, have been know to have 'purgative' properties (to put it delicately....) if eaten in large quantities. i've never had any problems, but, again, start out with small amounts. and for zeus's sake people, be smart about what you put in your mouth (this coming from a person who used to like certain dog biscuits as a child and has been know to taste strange bottles of liquid that have sat around so long on a shelf that the label had worn off ((but seriously, who the hell makes banana flavored dishsoap?!?))). seriously- know what you're eating. don't assume that you can munch on any old piece of grass or weed.....