At some stage in my life, when I’m old and have a patch of land I can tend to, gardening is on my to-do list.

Until then, a few pot plants on the window sill will have to cut it.

You know who’s really into their pot plants? The tannies who are snapping up those home DIY marijuana-growing kits.

Earlier this year, we told you how the Starke Ayres Garden Centre in Rosebank, Cape Town, was struggling to keep up with the demand.

Now, in a follow-up article on Times LIVE, manager Richard Morris has spoken about the demand amongst older clientele:

“More than 60% of our customers have been older and the demand has been crazy,” says manager Richard Morris…

The Starke Ayres team says most pensioners want to grow cannabis for medicinal reasons. “They are very particular that everything must be organic and not toxic,” says Morris…

Morris says the centre got 17,000 hits on its site in one week when he put up a post on how to make CBD oil at home.

Let’s hear from 75-year-old Anthony Church, who seems to have pretty green fingers:

[He] has taken advantage of this to grow his own cannabis plants, driven mostly by curiosity. Standing ramrod tall, he points out three-foot cannabis plants, with names like Gorilla Blue and Blue Cheese on his balcony in the southern suburbs…

“It’s a little jungle out there,” says Church, with a glint of humour. “People call cannabis plants weeds but they are very fussy weeds. This started when a friend’s daughter came over with a bag of cannabis and we smoked it.”

…Church ordered Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower’s Bible online and was surprised when a 512-page tome arrived.

Something to seek his teeth into whilst he hones his new craft.

Pensioner Sidney Naidoo, who lives on council land in Maitland, is also a fan, although he has been met with some resistance:

[He] said officials had forced him to remove a cannabis plant from his vegetable garden. “I want to make my own oil to treat arthritis and pain in my back,” says 72-year-old Naidoo. “The ointment with the oil works like a bomb.”

“Everything is legal and natural, but the council told me to get rid of my plant,” he says. Naidoo says he was the oldest member at a permaculture workshop on how to cultivate cannabis and extract the therapeutic oil run by “respectable children”.

Let Sidney grow his plants, man.

According to Di Ziman (below), the Starke Ayres has been selling around six to eight kits each day since they launched the product in November:

[She] says the surge of interest in “growing this topical plant” has opened up a dialogue between customers about cannabis. “Before it was always hush, hush.”

She said the buds are compact and aromatic and some strains have purple or pink hues. Seeds from traditional strains like Transkei Gold or Durban Poison are cheaper than cultivated hybrid seeds, which produce a bush for one-off harvesting.

Finally, we are rolling with the times.

By the way, if you’re interested in the healing properties the plant offers, there’s a cannabis wellness workshop in Tamboerskloof this weekend.

[source:timeslive]