LOL that's so funny but 'not' funny at the same time. To think... here I am all in a spin about my blooming horseradish.
All the best with the hemp plantation!!

Boy, you've really had a time of it this year, haven't you. I'm laughing with you, but I'm also sympathizing with you.

oh my goodness I thought this kind of thing only happened to me!!!! I have a raised bed on the opposite side of the house then the rest of my stuff that I use just for kitchen herbs well....my husband comes to me a couple days ago and says "do you realize you have marjuana growing in your herb bed?" What? Are you kidding me? Seriously thought he was pulling my leg since he is known to do so. I went and looked and wouldn't know it from a hole in the wall cause that was a road i never took (not sure if i was more afraid of the police or my MOM!) so the next time my sister was over (who wasn't afraid) I showed it to her and she confirmed it. Now how in the heck does it get there? And to ask a totally stupid question what is the difference between Hemp (mentioned above) and marjuana?

I read somewhere that Hemp has been associated with people for so long that no actual native form of it exists today. I have no idea if that is true or not.

I suggest you quietly pull it all out and toss it! Even if it's the rope sort and not the bud sort, not really safe to keep around.

Cassie,
The first thing I thought while reading your post was, "if you let the feds know, they will come over and spray for you" (of course they'd spray everything ... from 300 feet ... from a crop duster ... with an agent orange like substance. But it would get rid of the hemp!)

Then you reminded us of your professional position and I almost fell out of my chair laughing. This could really get ugly for you if someone wanted to make life difficult - all because of a weed (by that I mean an unwanted plant not "weed")

Steve

PS The child in the back of my mind is chanting, "Cassie's got wee-eed, Cassie's got wee-eed..."

Well it seems to me that the solution is obvious. Cut down the weed(s) and compost. Then apply the compost to your miserable uncooperative asparagus. The stuff should soon be growing sky high.

Cassie, I had to laugh when I read about your problem. Good luck with this, when I lived on an acreage in Iowa the stuff grew wild and I fought it for 5 years. Needless to say I didn't win. Mow it over, dig it up, whatever you choose to do, it will be back. Oh one bit of advice, don't burn it after you mow it..we had a bunch of goofy acting chickens after we tried that...may not be anything but hemp but it has quite an effect on chickens.

I haven't been on GW in a loooong time. Just started a new garden and been too busy with rocks and clay to play with the internet. This was the first post I clicked on and I had to laugh. Wow! What are the odds of this happening to someone in your line of work? Many years ago, we lived in a trailer park in Tuscon,AZ. I gardened every square inch of that lot. Apparently some of my neighbors decided to help me out because hubby comes in one day and says, "You've got pot growing in the tomatoes." No I don't! He was right, there stood several, beautiful foot tall plants that weren't there 2 days before. Marijuana grows fast, but not THAT fast! I pulled them at once and no one ever 'fessed up. You really have to pay attention to your garden!

My boyfriend said that stuff grows like "Weeds" where hes fron in the Rome/Utica area of NY.... The funny thing is, I have no idea how the heck it got there!!! Im wondering if me clearing the poison sumac allowed for the weed to take over...I tell you, if it wasnt illegal, it really is a beautiful plant. Today I cleared out most of it, but im sure it will be back, I read up today and it says it is extremely invasive...Im just going to have to deal with it. LOL!!!
Can you imagine me going to my Captain and saying "Yes Sir, I was growing weed in my garden, but no sir, I didnt plant it there! And no sir, I did not smoke any!!!" I was afraid to touch it today for fear of absorbing some of the drug in it LOL!!!!! My boyfriend (whos also a officer) gave me some heavy duty gloves to touch it with LOL!!!!
I think ill leave the Govt out of this one!!!!
AMPRICE- When my daughter was born, her grandmother was weeding her flower bed that was a huge circle, with really tall plants in the middle, and everything growing in circles around it. She was weeding, and pushed some Dahlias out of the way to find a 6 foot LUSH, BEAUTIFUL marijuana plant!!! She almost fell over!!! She took it into her house and fed it to the rabbit, who LOVED it!! LOL!!!! Not one of her 6 boys admitted to planting it there LOL!!!!!!!
Isnt it funny that people pay thousands of dollars to set up illegal drug operations to grow this stuff, and we all are like "How the HE** do we get rid of this!!?!!?!?!?!?" LOL! I babysit felons on a daily basis for doing stupid stuf like that LOL!!!!!!!!
Steve its not funny picking on me :P
Uggghh Gardening!!!! LOL!!!

Now to make matters worse DH is refusing to let me "get rid of it". He thinks it would be cool to let it go and see what happens. It is in a raised bed with the driveway concrete all around it so I am not worried about it drifting into anything else. I am just greatful we do not have any frequent visitors that carry a badge!

cassieinmass

It could have been a bird-plant.

For years I've read that cannabis seeds used to be present in bird seed mixes. That may be apocryphal or not, but the rest of the apocryphal or not story is that the seed companies were required to make all hemp or marijuana seeds in their mixes non-sprouters some way or another.

It sounds like they were just WAITING under that poison sumac to come to life! Maybe you can call your county extension office to find out how to eradicate it. I'm sure you didn't remove that sumac just to have hemp take over the area!

Well, I live in a city, and my yard used to be the local teen hangout and a parking lot, so who knows!!! It probably was just sitting there waiting!!!! My neighbors son offered to take the plants off my hands for me LOL! I told him im all set LOL!!!
To think I had this growing in my garden and all that has been stolen is my walking onions!!!!! LOL!!!!
Im sure once the neighborhood kids find out about this, they will be weeding my garden for me!!!!!!
Amprice, just have the hubby tell people hes going all natural and making his own sandals with it LOL!!!!!!
-Cass

No chance that you weed is cleome, aka spider flower? There was a humorous thread last year about how very similar they look until the cleome flowers.

An adventure in any case, cassie, although your version has a lot more spice to it!

Hepatica

Nope, not a cleome!!! I am took pics, and going to go to CVS and make acd so I can upload the pics. My puter's having issues with getting pictures off the camera...Pictures are forthcoming ASAP lol!!!!! -cass

To think I had this growing in my garden and all that has been stolen is my walking onions!!!!! LOL!!!!
Im sure once the neighborhood kids find out about this, they will be weeding my garden for me!!!!!!

Too bad you didn't know about this BEFORE you removed the sumac -- I'm sure they would have been glad to weed things for you!

That is too funny!

The seeds were once in Song Bird Seeds to help your birds sing that was until our "Hippies" started sorting out those seeds to start their own crop. Lived in West Virginia for a while during that time a few D.C. College kids were living on a farm that they rented for 40 bucks a month (1970) The local law raided the place and burned about 300 acres of Bailed "Hay." West Virginia and many of thoses state did once raise Hemp for rope and would still if people thought a little better, much better than siscle. Many of the ropes used on the farm were hemp and worked just fine.

And to ask a totally stupid question what is the difference between Hemp (mentioned above) and marjuana?

Between industrial hemp and marijuana? Original differences between subspecies of Cannabis sativa (subspecies sativa (industrial hemp) versus indica (marijuana)), amplified by a long history of selective breeding to increase the THC content for the latter and fiber content for the former. Sort of like the difference between modern domesticated tomatoes and wild currant tomatoes, modern corn and its wild ancestors, etc.

It grows here in nebraska wild. It's called ditch weed, You could smoke a big cigar of the stuff and all you will get is a raw throat and red eyes. My sheep think it is good eating when it gets about 3 ft tall. If you let it mature you may need a chain saw to cut it down 10 ft high and a very tough stalk. Iv'e threatened to turn my place in on the phone so the state patrol would come out chop and burn the stuff.

ROFL!!!!!! Im trying to get rid of it, but im not so sure I want the police involved LOL!!!!!!
I bet the people that were in the wind-fall of all those 400 lbs of marijuana were mighty hungry after breathing those fumes in LOL!!!!!!!

Been a big grin here cassieinmass! Thanks for sharing! Funny how stuff just shows up eh?
Reminds me of a few years back when I was out early walking the grounds, foggy and all, and I did a double take on the pasture. Sure 'nough, out of the blue there was a Longhorn cow in my pasture. And she was in heat. And wild.
The next few days were crazy. Fences were destroyed, my prize winning bull swapped for a horse, a neighbor claimed it ( got away when he opened the trailer and went satanic) and ended up shooting it but I had to haul it out of the bottoms with the tractor. How do these things happen?

I had tear rolling down my eyes reading this! but with a purely professional head on my shoulders, I would tell you boss what has happened and if they agent orange your garden (just make sure you take the onions out :o) ) it would realy spell then end of a career if that stuff was found in a suburban garden, not to mention the attached ? jail term! after all would you believe someone who said, "I did put that in my bag?" maybe it could have a lab test to see if its hemp or the other weed?
In the UK hemp is grown a lot, I had a friend who was a farmer who grew it and on a weekend when we had no money to go out we used to buy some beer sit on his fence and watch and laugh as the local youths stole the hemp and attempted to smoke it! and then pretend to be high! hysterical!

Cassie: Cut off the buds & mail them to me. ;-) Then, destroy the rest of the plants. Just kidding! hehehe

Compost only if it has not budded. If it did bud, chances are that you got seeds since the male and female plants were together. You would not want to compost the seeds, it is unlikely the compost heat would destroy them and then you would have a bit of a weed problem........ in more ways than one.

I don't have weed in my backyard but I do have wild strawberries that love to try and take everything over. I think the previous owners tried to grow them and then kinda let them completely take over. I have been battling them for the past few years.

There are no seeds a bit of boiling water can't take care of ;)

Oh yeah thats just what I need, creating a federal offense by mailing them to you ROFLMAO!!!!!!

Cassie - just the thought of my ponytailed biker husband in sandals is enough to bring tears to my eyes from laughing but add him going natural OMG! If he were home right now and were to read this and figure out why I am hysterically laughing he would have a fit (in a funny way). I am hoping to "hide" the plants with the herbs so hopefully nobody will actually see them and that will keep me out of the doghouse since I won't be destroying them.

The country roads outside of town here in southwest WI are loaded with the stuff. I do a lot of biking and always noticed the large plants growing alongside the road. Its just a common "weed" here. I know back in high school kids tried smoking it, but i don't think it really had the kick that "Pineapple Express" does.

Well, speaking from experience, I can tell you that there are three types of cannabis.
Cannabis cannabis is the industrial "rope" plant. No THC at all.
Cannabis sativa is the columbian/Mexican type that is a staple in a drug user's life. Most Marijuana falls in this category.
Canabis Indica is the Skunky smelling kind that everyone grows in the home garden and indoors, mainly due to it's strength and taste.
If you never notice it growing before, that means it was probably put there, either by someone or something.
I have seen a plant spring up when someone dropped a seed while preparing to smoke outdoors, but to have several, the mother must have gone to seed(meaning it was there at the end of last growing season) or it was put there. Being that you are a Fed official, I would question that someone may have been pulling a joke on you(Think neighborhood hoodlums).

I came on here to ask about my radishes and saw this post.
OMG, too funny! Well, funny, but not so funny. The point of cassie being a Federal officer gives it it's humor.

Yes it does. She is cool though. =)

Gee..... and to think all I had to worry about was crabgrass! Wish it was as desired by the locals as the stuff yours is similar too!!! Hehehe!
That`s really funny Cassie! LOL!

Thanks Steve, :P Im really just a nerd though!!!
Well this wonderful rain has made my weed grow even better. I thought I cut down everything, but it looks like it did just when I got it!!!
Seriously though, my boyfriends ex would be my main suspect if someone planted it!!!!!
I wish I had crabgrass right now LOL!!!!!

Hey maybe what you need to do is let it "slip" to a couple people of "questionable character" that you have ummmm...wacky weed growing at your house. Maybe one day when you go back out to look at your garden, ALL that stuff might just have magically disappeared! Problem solved!!! LOL! You might get "lucky" though & have local LEO pull it up for you too if the locals don`t "find" it. Yeah I know. LEO`s don`t like doing that kind of thing & are grumpy & yell a lot when they find stuff like that. Was a thought though. Hehehe!

Now if I could only convince people around here that crabgrass is really "good stuff" & I have LOTS of it growing in my garden. NO MORE crabgrass! Hmmmm...........
:)