Last Saturday I was a speaker at a large virtual gardening expo, the Great Grow Along. This free, virtual garden show was supported by the three biggest national garden shows in the country (Oklahoma City Home & Garden Show, Northwest Flower & Garden Show, and Philadelphia Flower Show) and sponsored by large gardening concerns. And for what I think might be the first time ever, I taught folks how to grow cannabis in the garden as part of the Great Grow Along. Let me repeat that: I taught about cannabis gardening at a large national garden show in the US, with an international online audience. In the limited digging I’ve had time to do I can’t find another regular (non-cannabis oriented) garden expo that has ever included education about growing cannabis in the garden. This was a wonderful opportunity for me as an garden author, but it was even more important and momentous for my favorite plant, Cannabis sativa.

There were more than 950 folks tuned in and very active on the chat during my 1/2 hour recorded class. I covered the basics of how to grow cannabis in the garden, outside in the sun, from seed to bud. This is a class that I teach often, usually in person in nurseries or in private homes in sunny California. It’s legal to grow cannabis outside at home here in the golden state, with good access to cannabis seeds. But this isn’t the case in many other parts of the USA and the world. So I added key information about how folks can discover the legal landscape for cannabis home cultivation where they garden by visiting NORML.org. I also felt the need to educate the public on what cannabinoids and terpenes are and how they drive the experience one might expect from their flower. Recognizing that most participants would have little access to high quality cannabis seed, I arranged a generous discount from my two favorite cannabis seed breeders, Grow it From Home and The Humboldt Seed Company. (online class participants: The slide with this discount code flashed pretty briefly online, so keep reading for more info on how to get the discount code!)

I am grateful for the imagination and foresight shown by The Great Grow Along organizers. They recognized the value that cannabis gardening brings to us as gardeners, and to the gardening commercial sector. They planted a seed of acceptance by including my class in the stellar lineup of fellow gardening experts. I intend to nurture this seed until we have full inclusion of cannabis gardening in all garden shows. Cannabis belongs in the garden, and at garden shows. Judging by the enthusiastic response and active engagement with my class, folks across this country think so too.

One of the most common questions asked during my class was how and where to buy high quality cannabis seeds to grow in the garden. For most other garden plants, any one of us can go to our local nursery and buy them. But this is not true for cannabis seeds. My work with Emily Gogol of Grow it From Home has carefully and slowly placed cannabis seeds in nurseries. Two years ago we got a woman-owned independent nursery in my neighborhood to offered cannabis seeds for sale in their store. Quickly thereafter another local independent nursery did the same. This year I think there are 7 or so nurseries offering seeds for sale in the Bay Area and in LA. This is a good start! My goal is that in the near future nurseries throughout the USA will offer high quality cannabis seeds for sale. But since that’s not yet a reality gardeners who are eager to grow cannabis at home need to source their seeds elsewhere. Luckily, they have access right now via the mail.

For the 950+ people who attended my class on March 1: THANK YOU for coming! To get the code to save 20% on seeds at Grow it From Home or The Humboldt Seed Company please reach out to me via email through my contact page. I promise to get back to you within a day or two with the code.