Plant Your Garden
Now's the time grow w🌿d and summer vegetables
It’s been too quiet in the abandoned chicken yard. Previously teeming with life and sounds from the sweet chickens, handsome-boy rooster, and an overly chatty stray cat. These days I barely make it up there to collect the few pieces of fruit the squirrels haven’t stolen.
While I’m excellent at using things from the garden and tending to creatures, I’m a terrible gardener. This is not my creative forte and I lack patience. My landscaping style is what you’d call guerilla survivalist – I throw seeds and plant things, and whatever survives can stay.
Which is why w🌿d is kinda perfect. It IS a weed, after all. And right now is the time to garden.
My back garden is undergoing a massive transformation this year thanks to Adrian of LA Homegrow, a professional landscape designer who does private organic gardening services, and Emily of Grow It From Home, a scientist turned farmer and USDA Organic seed slinger.
The years of chicken shit have composted down into fertile ground, ripe for planting and growing our very own Freedom Garden.
Vol. 34 // In this Issue:
History of Freedom Gardens
What Vegetables to Plant Right Now
Stupid-Easy W🌿d Gardening
Lazy Composting
“Gardening is a radical act of self-care.” – Lily Kwong, founder of the Freedom Gardens initiative
History of Freedom Gardens
Fraught with a history of unpleasant truths, communities growing their own food has always been a societal movement for independence and freedom.
1776-1865 // Slaves who farmed grew food to supplement what food was given to them. Their cuisine defined the food of America.
1914-1945 // The U.S. government promoted Victory Gardens to increase domestic food production during WWI and WWII.
1942-1946 // Japanese-Americans sent to internment camps had their farmland taken by white farmers to create these Victory Gardens. Some brought seeds and plants to the internment camps with them where they gardened and grew food in harsh conditions to supplement the government-issued food with fresh produce.
Did you know that growing hemp was once mandatory? In the 17th and 18th centuries, American farmers were legally required to grow hemp as a staple crop for fiber, rope, paper, and textiles. The Mar*ju*na Tax Act of 1937 was the beginning of c*nn*bis’ decline except for a brief moment during WWII when farmers throughout the U.S. were encouraged to “fulfill their patriotic duty by planting hemp under the banner of “Hemp for Victory,” which was critical for the war effort to make fiber for ropes, bootlaces, and parachute webbing.
1970 // After the war, hemp was banned and categorized as a Schedule 1 drug due to the Controlled Substances Act signed by Nixon in 1970.
1966-1982 // Food justice was at the center of the Black Panthers who grew food for their community and started the Free Breakfast Program for children.
2000s // Urban farming and parkway gardening provide fresh, healthy food in food desert communities that are otherwise dependent on fast-food chains and corner liquor stores.
2014-ongoing // Colorado is the first state to legalize recreational cannabis. Access to the plant is now possible again. California Prop 64 legalized personal use and home cultivation of marijuana, other states continue to pass legal cannabis laws, and the 2018 Farm Bill accidentally legalized hemp.
2020-2022 // During the pandemic, we turned to gardening to soothe our anxiety and feel a small modicum of control in an otherwise panic-filled existence.
From Head Gardender, Emily Gogol of Grow It From Home
How NOT to Start Your Seeds
“I read on the Internet that you should do [ … ] to start seeds.”
You don’t need to do anything special to start c*nn*bis seeds. Bigger than a radish seed, smaller than a sunflower seed, the brown stripey round seeds are fairly large and easy to start. Just put them in some moist soil, water, and wait for the plant babies to sprout.
These are real things that people have asked at Grow It From Home workshops. You do NOT need to do this to the seeds for them to germinate:
Start in paper towel
Rough up with sandpaper
Cut with a knife
Freeze
Lick
Boil
What Vegetables to Plant Right Now
During the summer months, plant vegetables that will thrive in full-day and hot temperatures. Plan to harvest sun-soaked veggies all summer long and into early fall. You’ll need well-draining loose soil, compost, and seeds or seedlings.
Basil
Beans
Beets
Carrots
C*nn*bis
Corn
Eggplants
Melon
Onions
Peas
Peppers
Squash
Tomatillos
Tomatoes
Stupid-Easy W🌿d Gardening
If you’re just starting, here’s what you need to know. It’s not that complicated. No fancy equipment necessary. All you need is soil, light, water, and a few seeds. Accept the fact that you’ll kill a few plants during the learning process.
Here’s what you need to know to get started:
Start your seeds in small seedling pots indoors in a sunny spot, like any other vegetable seed.
When they’ve grown more than six leaves, transplant outdoors into the soil, after the last frost.
Transplant in a large pot, about 4-5 gallons with loose, rich, well draining soil.
Cover top layer of soil with mulch to retain moisture.
Place in a spot that gets full sun, 8+ hours a day.
Water deep every 2-3 days, moist with intermittent dry soil. Water early in the morning, and more frequently on hot 90+ degree F days.
Add compost and nutrients, once a month. Add more mulch as needed.
FAQs
When do I start seeds? In Southern California, late April/early May is the best time to start seeds and plant seedlings for late September/early October harvest.
How many plants should I grow? 1-2 plants will provide more than you need for personal consumption.
What is mulch? Yardwaste. Any dried brown plant material that’s been broken down.
What kind of nutrients? Compost, worm compost tea, etc. Basic organic vegetable garden fertilizer will work. Brands like Dr. Earth are good. Do not purchase synthetic fertilizers from brands owned by shitty, unethical corporations like Scott’s, Miracle-Gro, or Bayer.
Am I allowed to grow at home? Hemp plants are totally legal to grow according to the 2018 Farm Bill. Check your local city and state home grow laws and ordinances for what is and is not allowed. In states like California, you are allowed up to 6 plants for personal use, however, your local city ordinance may have strict rules about how this can and cannot be done.
Lazy Composting
You can buy organic compost and fertilizer from your local garden store, or you can DIY by composting at home. Food scraps, paper, and green waste decompose over several months to create FREE compost.
Our plant trash naturally biodegrades and break down into nutrient-rich soil. Whether you live in an apartment or a house with a yard, you can compost!
Backyard compost bins or piles are low-maintenence and wonderful way to make your own compost. Vermicompost (worm bin) can fit in a small bin under your sink, but does require more attention and care for your new worm pets.
My lazy way of composting is to collect my food waste, kitchen scraps, and paper bits in a small container in the kitchen, and toss it all into the compost bin in a corner of my backyard. I cover the rotting scraps with handfuls of leaves and yard waste swept up from the yard, and leave it uncovered for the night creatures to enjoy their buffet. Keep it moist and spray some water over the pile every couple weeks in the summer when it’s hot and dry. In a few months to a year, the bottom of that pile will decompose into black gold for your soil. Use that compost in the garden to amend the soil and provide nutrients for your plants.
Inevitably there will be flies and things that don’t decompose all the way, like sticks, stray fruit stickers, or avocado pits. That’s okay, just take them out and throw away in your Green Bin. You CAN put meat into the compost bin and it will break down, but be warned that it will smell horrible as it decomposes.
Shoutout to Cabbage Hill, an ethical, plant-based animal-free fertilizer founded by Erin Riley who realized that animal by-products are the main ingredient in today’s organic garden fertilizers.
I met Erin at a gardening workshop and she gave me samples of her vegan fertilizer. Excited to try it on the new plants beds this year!
The Fruit + Flower House has been full of houseguests lately hosting Emily Gogol and stoner scientist Dr. Miyabe Shields. Having two passionate c*nn*bis scientists in my home fervently discussing the nerdy side of w**d, plants, food, life, and everything in between has been a mind explosion of awesome.
I had the pleasure of joining Emily and Penny Barthel, author of “The Cannabis Gardener” at two workshops in Los Angeles at C&S Garden Center in Lawndale, and at Fig Earth Supply in Highland Park.
A reporter from the Los Angeles Times was there to snap photos and write a story about how they’re make backyard c*nn*bis growing more accessible and approachable to home gardeners.
So proud of these two! Can’t wait to share the article with you when it publishes.
XOXO, Christina W.
This is a gorgeous pic of some wise weedy women 😍😊🌴🌲🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳 we are so powerful together ❤️ great article 👏 very inspirational..we are slowly coming around in Australia, increasing the home grown, home made both politically and ideologically will be a challenge. But even hearing about other things in the weed space is great. I love your article about the trade show and how there's 2 types of consumers, I think we should add gate keeping medical users. I've seen this emerging in the aus cannabis subreddits, it seems a little underwhelming. I do know that we cannot grow enough in this country to sate the growing demand for legal ways to consume, given this obviously hints at our illegal consumption.
Anyway, rabbit holes and all that, nice work.