Stone me! Gardener who grew cannabis by mistake
AT first glance, a green-fingered gardener thought it was nothing more than a strange weed that had taken root in her lawn.
But the innocent islander was shocked to discover it was actually a cannabis plant – thought to have grown from a seed in her bird feeder.
It was only when she posted pictures on a local Facebook group that she found out what the leafy plant was.
The unnamed woman, from Birsay, Orkney, had not recognised the plant’s distinctive leaves.
She said: ‘I suspect it’s more common than we know.
‘I first noticed it a few weeks ago. We’ve had visitors staying, so I’ve not had time to tackle the weeds in the garden for a while.
‘We have bird-feeders, and have used the same seed mix for a long while, although we did get a different one by mistake about two months ago. Perhaps that is the culprit. Although where the plant was growing was on the opposite side of the house to the feeders, so who knows?’
Though her post has been met with more than a few sarcastic comments, she said the Facebook group, Orkney Gardeners, is ‘fabulous for getting answers’.
‘I hadn’t realised that growing hemp was a problem until today. I do now. Makes you wonder what else is growing amongst the weeds,’ the woman said.
She called on the Facebook group for advice, posting images in the hope of identifying the weed – and was surprised to discover that she was unwittingly breaking the law.
In 2014, Patricia Hewitson from Exmouth, Devon, accidentally grew a 5ft cannabis plant.
She contacted BBC Radio Devon’s gardening programme The Potting Shed for help in identifying the specimen.
Gardening expert Sarah Chesters was able to identify it from a photograph. After discovering that it was actually an illegal cannabis plant the police advised Mrs Hewitson and her husband to remove it.
As with the Orkney plant, Mrs Hewitson, 65, thinks it grew from a seed that had been in a sack of bird feed she had bought.
It is illegal to grow cannabis in the UK without a licence but police said that no further action would be taken.