Valerian

When I woke up this morning, I had a little conversation with the valerian plant in my yard.

I told him that I planned to dig up the volunteer valerian seedlings that had sprung up in the vegetable garden and give them to the guy I bought the original plant from at the farmer's market last year.

The original plant was not happy about this and proceeded to argue that his plan was to populate what I called "the vegetable garden" with a healthy strong vibrant colony of valerian plants. I argued that the vegetable garden was my space and I would not allow that. He became angry, saying that there was good soil there and it was a good place for a colony of his offspring. I said there was a reason the soil was good, I worked at it, and I used that space to grow food for my offspring. The valerian sulked.

This evening I dug up the seedlings, some are quite large and vibrant indeed, and put them in pots, and watered them.

I tried to pacify the original plant with a gift of a pinch of tobacco. Then I sat with the plant and smoked a cigarette, and assured it I would make sure the seedlings had good homes. I weeded around it and gave it some water from the creek. I hope that makes peace with it.