Every year I plant herbs, vegetables and, oftentimes, a couple of female cannabis plants alongside my house
Near the end of summer, I was having lunch with a good friend who was formerly an agriculture professor at a major university. He’s currently retired from teaching and co-owns a successful, high-tech cannabis grow.
I often go to him for advice on how to correctly word articles or to verify claims that are made in ads for cannabis products (mostly products like nutrients, soils, etc.). During our lunch, we got into the subject of cultivation, and I wondered what motivated him to jump headlong into cannabis after decades as a highly respected college professor — a professor who could’ve easily retired to the easy life of watching TV, fishing, travel, cruises, playing with grandkids, and the like.
“Greg, I just like to grow stuff,” he said. “Doesn’t matter if it’s fruit trees, tomatoes or cannabis. To me, plants are interesting and growing them well has always fascinated me.”
As I thought about his response, I realized I’ve always felt the same way. Now, I readily admit I’m not an expert gardener, and I doubt I’d win any awards for my skills or results (and entering a giant pumpkin contest is not in my future). However, for as long as I can remember, I’ve had a small vegetable garden on the sunny south side of my house. Each year I plant things like tomatoes, zucchini, basil and peppers. I water and feed them, trim them up, and eventually get a nice yield.
Some years are better than others, and here in Seattle a lot depends on having a nice, warm “Indian summer” that stays sunny well into September and October. This year seems to have been a good one, with a bumper crop of fat tomatoes.
Most summers I also plant a female cannabis plant or two. And, as with tomatoes, they love full sun, well-drained soil and a nice warm fall. But that’s where the similarities end (although I should mention that several years ago while talking to a different ag professor at a university in the Midwest, his advice for cannabis cultivators was to use all the same techniques and nutrients as commercial tomato farms. According to him the plants have nearly identical requirements). While tomatoes ripen at roughly the same time and go bad quickly, cannabis is usually dried and can last for months. So, while I store my cured and dried cannabis flowers for later consumption and gifts to friends, with a bumper crop of tomatoes, I’ve learned how to make homemade marinara sauce (which involves lots of garlic, basil, mushrooms, spices, red wine and, most importantly of all, many hours of slow simmering to thicken it).
It’s a labor of love for me, and a way to relax while I savor the smell of a slow-cooked homemade marinara sauce. And knowing I grew the tomatoes myself makes the final product all the more tasty and rewarding. Yeah, growing plants — any plant — for many of us is therapeutic and a labor of love.
Happy gardening!