OK, so... The guy next door. He quit drinking. Now he vapes. Whatever. Life is quieter and less smelly. His wife and girls are lovely, and their cats are the ones I mention most (LilMiss, Shadow).

Yesterday, he asks me, "Hey, what's that growing in those pots out front of your house?"

Now, I had dianthus, and it grew lovely in the pots till we had a little squirrel issue (they cached stuff in the pots, hurt the roots, clunk, dead plants).

So what grew next... I identified as a ubiquitous, "obnoxious to gardeners" weed, b/c hey, it actually looks like a deliberate plant and nothing kills it, including squrirels, cat pee, and heat waves. I get green growing, no maintenance, I win!

Until yesterday...

"What's growing in those pots?"

I say, "Why do you ask?"

He replies, "Well, I took some leaves..."

(AHHA! I know why my little garden butterfly statue thing was toppled! Only humans can do taht! HAH!)

I say, "Yes, it looks a bit like mint or basil..."

He continues, "...and smelled them and ate a couple."

*screeech* Hold on. Whoa. Brakes applied. He whatta? Unidentified plant, he smelled and ate leaves?! WTF? Smell, okay. Eat? No no no no no no no.

Leaving aside, btw, the fact he tromped my garden butterfly statuette and stole my plant....

My neighbor then says,  "I didn't get sick or anything but I was wondering."

NOW he wonders?

Yes, yes he does.

What is he "vaping"?!

Well, I say calmly, "It's Virginia copperleaf, gardenrs consider it a weed, but since I noticed it grows well out front and it turns a pretty color in fall, I figured why not. It's like my periwinkle that way. Looks nice, no effort." (In this heat and radical drought-or-flood climate I live in, no effort is a huge deal. About ten plants can handle it that aren't native to the area.)

Says my neighbor, "Oh. So do I have to worry?"

About me? Possibly.

I say, "It has no known medicinal or food properties, but I wouldn't recommend eating it. That stuff you just pulled out of your flower bed, that's lamb's quarter, it's a wild spinach relative, you can eat the leaves on that."

With a look of horror, and the look that says "You are crazy!", says my neighbor, "Yeah, but that's a weed."

Annnnd..... time to smile, nod, an dpretend that I was going somewhere other than the mailbox to end that conversation.

Ate. The. Unknown. Plant.

OK, two houses over, they've had no windows or window coverings (plastic/paper) for over a month... And I'm right next to this guy... And people around here look at *me* like I'm *weird*. *tail lash* Really? Oh yeah, it's normal to leave your house without windows at all for over a month, no plastic to protect the indoors from sun/rain/bats.... Normal to eat plants otu of the neighbor's flowerbed when you don't know them... but me, I'm weird.