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L.A. is one of the best places on the planet to grow weed outdoors. Here's how

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L.A. is one of the best places on the planet to grow weed outdoors. Here's how

If you’ve ever considered growing your own pot plant at home in Southern California but found the whole tents-and-timers-in-a-closet thing impossibly confusing or prohibitively intimidating (or both), the good news is that it doesn’t have to be either. That’s the takeaway from a series of workshops that have taken place at nurseries and gardening centers across L.A.

Motivated by a desire to demystify and destigmatize growing hemp and cannabis at home (and funded in part by a USDA grant), Emily Gogol (head gardener of Oregon-based Grow It From Home) and Penny Barthel (author of “The Cannabis Gardener” and Bay Area co-founder of the educational website Wondering About Weed) have been helping aspiring ganja greenthumbs across the Southland get their grow on since earlier this year. Their basic premise? A cannabis plant is as easy to grow — in your backyard garden or on your patio — as a tomato plant.

Emily Gogol, left, and Penny Barthel talk to aspiring cannabis gardeners during a workshop at C&S Garden Center in Lawndale. They have held a dozen local workshops since earlier this year, with the aim of demystifying and destigmatizing growing cannabis plants at home.

That was one of the surprising things I walked away with after catching one of the duo’s hourlong free workshops at C&S Garden Center in Lawndale one late April Saturday afternoon. There, surrounded by bags of fertilizer, shelves full of planters and every kind of leafy green plant imaginable, Gogol and Barthel offered pointers and answered questions for a group of 30 hobby gardeners who had come seeking guidance before growing their first pot plant in the natural SoCal sunlight.

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Having experienced the whole lights-and-timers thing firsthand when I grew my first plant a few years back, I was intrigued by the garden-club feel of the duo’s approach as well as their efforts to move cannabis gardening from the exclusive, insular realm of basements and bro culture and put it in its rightful place: on the patio right next to the trellised tomatoes and cooking herbs. (As Gogol pointed out early in the workshop I attended, the whole reason most cannabis plants grown at home were traditionally indoors and out of sight was because of a half-century of pot prohibition.)

Even before I caught their late April workshop, I’d considered adding a plant to the greenery of my L.A. backyard. But something Gogol told the workshop attendees really sealed the deal for me: “You guys actually live in one of the best places on the planet to grow cannabis,” she said.

Once I heard that, I felt compelled (for journalistic purposes, if nothing else) to see just how easy it could be. Especially because, as I was soon to learn, I had not missed this season’s outdoor planting window. And as of this publication, neither have you, so if you’re a backyard gardener thinking about adding a pot plant to your plot or a weed head contemplating an adventure in hazy horticulture, here are five things that will help you successfully (and legally) get growing.

A woman wearing a red earring shaped like a marijuana leaf

Home-grow enthusiast Christina Wong, wearing an appropriately themed pair of earrings, listens to the April 27 workshop presentation.

Although it may be as easy to grow as tomatoes or zucchini, growing cannabis is different in one very important way: Under state law, you have to be age 21 (different regulations apply to medical marijuana patients), you’re limited to growing six plants per private residence and, most important, if you’re growing outdoors (that’s why you’re here, right?), the plants must be in a locked space that is not visible to the public. (In other words, the front yard is no-go; a fenced-in backyard or enclosed patio is a better bet.)

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What you’ll need to know beyond that to keep your home grow legal depends on where in California you live because cities and counties can further restrict (or outright ban) personal-use cultivation. The cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood don’t have additional regulations, while L.A. County’s ordinance (which applies to unincorporated areas of the county) has all kinds of specifics to keep in mind. These include a minimum distance from rear and side property lines (10 feet), maximum plant height (6 feet) and type of fencing (masonry or wood is OK; chain link is not).

If your eyes are starting to glaze over — and not in a good way — check out the county’s very helpful handout on the topic. For L.A. County residents, a good starting point to find out local laws is the database of rules and regulations compiled by the Los Angeles chapter of NORML (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) at lanorml.org.

A person holds a packet of seeds with the words THC and "Afternoon Punch" on the front.

A workshop attendee holds packets of cannabis seeds that Emily Gogol says can legally be purchased at C&S and a handful of other local gardening centers and nurseries.

2. Get the right seeds

“One of the differences from tomato [plants] that makes cannabis so special and fun — but also confusing — is that cannabis plants can be male or female,” Gogol said during the C&S workshop I attended. “And basically, when you grow cannabis for flower, you want them to be the female plants, so we’d encourage you to purchase female seeds — they’re called ‘feminized’ seeds.”

Another seed term to be on the lookout for, especially if you want to make the most of the SoCal sunlight, is “photoperiod,” which means the resulting plant will start to flower (i.e., start producing those tasty buds) when the amount of light drops below 12 hours each day. (There are also autoflower seeds whose resulting plants begin to flower after a set period of time regardless of the amount of light they receive.) Beyond that, what kind of seeds you buy depends a lot on what end product you’re hoping to harvest as well as what you can find.

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This brings me to what might be the coolest thing (of many cool things) I took away literally and figuratively from the C&S workshop: an old-timey-looking seed packet no different from what you’d find at any garden center. Except, that is, for the bold letters THC in the upper left-hand corner of the front, an artfully drawn leafy green pot plant and the words “Afternoon Punch” (a cultivar described on the back with the words sweet, raspberry and hibiscus).

Inside the $45 packet were five feminized, photoperiod seeds from Gogol’s Oregon farm, and they can be purchased with no more hassle — or stigma — than anything else at C&S Garden Center. (Grow It From Home’s seeds also are available locally through Fig Earth Supply, Flora Grubb Gardens L.A. and International Garden Center as well as the C&S Nursery in the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw neighborhood.)

While that may not seem like a big deal — especially in a place like Los Angeles, where seeds (and seedlings) have long been available in dispensaries (or surreptitiously via mail, arriving in unmarked packages) — Gogol and Barthel see being able to pick up cannabis seeds in the same place as any other gardening supplies as a game-changer when it comes to making patio pot growing more accessible to the kind of casual gardeners who would feel much more at ease in a nursery than a dispensary.

It’s also something that’s relatively new and uncharted territory, Gogol said, explaining that she is relying on a 2022 Drug Enforcement Administration letter (known as the Pennington letter) that clarified that cannabis seeds containing less than 0.03% THC (which they do) are legally classified as hemp and exempt from the Controlled Substances Act. “It’s legal,” Gogol said about making seeds available this way. “I’ve got a whole binder on [the topic].”

In an interview with The Times, Shane Pennington, the lawyer whose inquiry resulted in the DEA’s clarification, confirmed Gogol’s interpretation but added a note of caution. “Just because it’s not illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act doesn’t mean that it’s legal for all purposes, under every other law in the United States or in every state or every jurisdiction in every state,” he said.

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Two people point to a bag of potting soil.

Emily Gogol, left, and Penny Barthel gesture toward a bag of Fox Farm’s Ocean Forest potting soil in response to a question about growing medium. “It’s what you would buy if you were going to grow a couple of tomatoes and maybe a miniature eggplant on a trellis on your patio,” she said.

3. Seek out the sun

Assuming you’re keeping legal requirements in mind, where’s the best outdoor place for your plant? “Where you get your sun is where you should grow your cannabis,” Barthel told attendees. “Even if it’s not in the ground.”

Gogol concurred, adding that “it’s better to grow in a container with full sun — eight to 12 hours a day — than in the ground in a shade situation.”

If you’re going the container route, Gogol suggested using one in the 10- to 15-gallon range (“terracotta, plastic, fabric — it doesn’t matter”) and to use a high-quality potting soil. “Something like [Fox Farm’s] Ocean Forest. It doesn’t say ‘cannabis’ on it. It doesn’t say ‘dank’ anything,” she said. “It’s what you would buy if you were going to grow a couple of tomatoes and maybe a miniature eggplant on a trellis on your patio.” (Another option, suggested in “The Cannabis Gardener,” Barthel’s book for beginners, is EB Stone’s Recipe 420 Potting Soil.)

Whether you’re growing in the ground or using a container, Barthel said, “You can’t go wrong by using compost.”

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A hand holds a small potted cannabis plant.

If it gets full sun and the right amount of water, this bit of legal-to-grow backyard greenery could be up to 5 feet tall by fall, according to workshop organizers.

4. Plant between 4/20 and Father’s Day

“When to start your seeds or get your [seedlings] is about controlling the size of the plant,” Gogol told workshop attendees. “So if you want a 5-foot-tall, human-size plant that’s going to yield bags and bags of flower — and be easy to harvest and take care of and manage and give you almost no trouble — we tell folks to start anytime after 4/20 and before Father’s Day. It’s really a window.”

Always the third Sunday in June, Father’s Day falls on June 16 this year, so this year’s window is only open for a few more weeks.

This was another one of the many things from the workshop that surprised me because I’d previously read — and taken as gospel — that seeds needed to be planted no later than Mother’s Day.

A well-manicured hand holds a plastic bag full of cannabis buds.

Examples of what could be grown “as easily as tomatoes” were passed around. According to the workshop organizers, getting photoperiod seeds planted in SoCal by Father’s Day has the potential to yield “bags and bags of flower.”

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5. Don’t overwater

Gogol and Barthel said the No. 1 mistake budding gardeners make is overwatering their plant babies. “You want to water [your plants] as deeply and as infrequently as possible,” Gogol said. “If you’re growing in a container, put your hand in the soil and dig around. If it feels bone dry all the way down to finger length, then give it water. And if you’re watering in a container, you’ll want to water fully so the water flushes out the bottom of the pot for a little bit. In [Southern California] where it doesn’t get that hot, you can honestly water deeply once a week or maybe twice a week if you’re having a hot dry spell. But you want to err on the side of under-watering. It does not want wet feet — it’s not a hydrangea. Again, think of it like a tomato.”

Is growing weed in your garden — or on your patio — any more complicated than that? Gogol and Barthel assured us it’s not. Even so, I’ve barely scratched the surface of what both pot professionals covered in that hour-long workshop, so if you’re feeling canna-curious and want to pepper a pro with questions before the get-’em-in-the-ground window closes, you’ve got a handful of options. One is a June 3 online workshop (prices start at $5) or a handful of in-person workshops in the L.A. area in the run-up to Father’s Day and one on the day itself (the latter will include giveaway Father’s Day bouquets that incorporate cannabis foliage).

Additional information and free tickets are available at growitfromhome.com. (There are also four workshops scheduled for the Bay Area before the planting window closes.) Otherwise, these five pointers should at least get you started down the ganja garden path legally and logistically.

And who knows, if it really is as easy as growing tomatoes, in the fall I (and perhaps some of you) may be signing up for another one of their workshops — the one where they teach how to properly harvest all that backyard bounty.

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After weeks of speculation, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce wed in New York

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After weeks of speculation, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce wed in New York

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, pictured at a basketball game in May, announced their engagement in August 2025.

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NEW YORK — Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are officially married.

After three years of dating, The pop icon and Super Bowl-winning football player, both 36, tied the knot in New York, according to a statement from Swift’s publicist, Tree Paine.

There were neither bridesmaids nor groomsmen. “Instead, her brother Austin Swift served as Taylor’s Man of Honor and Jason Kelce was Travis’ Best Man. The ceremony joined both families together,” Swift’s publicist said in the statement released Friday evening.

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The ceremony was officiated by comedian and a friend of the couple, Adam Sandler, the statement added.

The singer’s rep said that the couple was dressed in Christian Dior Haute Couture.

“The bride and groom’s wedding ceremony looks have been created by Christian Dior Haute Couture. They are designed by Jonathan Anderson, Creative Director of Dior Women’s, Men’s and Haute Couture Collections, in close collaboration with the Bride and Groom,” the statement said. “This is the designer’s first couture wedding dress for a world-renowned celebrity. Their shoes were custom made by Christian Louboutin and the bride wore Cartier jewelry.”

Security around the event was intense, so it remains unclear if the wedding was charming, if a little gauche. But the night before the ceremony the 20,000-person stadium was bathed in a lavender haze.

Details gleaned from a city permit obtained by The Associated Press, showed details of a “special event at MSG” scheduled to begin Friday evening and running overnight Saturday.

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As speculation built, fans began gathering in front of the stadium ahead of the expected wedding, despite the couple’s efforts to keep details of the celebration under wraps.

Superfans and sleuths appeared to have their hunches confirmed on Friday, as dozens of black cars dropped off elegantly dressed guests outside of Madison Square Garden in New York City.

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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Ken Marino

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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Ken Marino

Ken Marino loves living in L.A.

Living here has certainly been good for his acting career. Though he broke into the business as a member of NYC-turned-MTV sketch comedy group the State in 1994, he moved to L.A. in the fall of 1997 when he landed a role in the second season of “Men Behaving Badly,” an NBC sitcom. Marino shot just 13 episodes before the show was canceled. Still, he stayed in L.A., landing roles in much-loved shows like “Veronica Mars,” “Party Down,” “The Residence” and “Running Point.” He’s also co-written a few things, including “Role Models” and “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass,” out July 10, which was filmed in and around Los Angeles.

Sunday Funday infobox logo with colorful spot illustrations

In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

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“Working around L.A. and running around to jobs is how I got to understand L.A.,” Marino says. “It’s just a very comfortable city to live in. I just think it’s fun to be able to bounce around and do anything you feel like doing.”

Here’s how Marino would spend his perfect, carefree Sunday in Los Angeles.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

6 a.m.: Dog walking, coffee and flowers

We have two dogs. They need to go outside in the morning and eat, and they are very vocal about it. For a while, every morning at 5:58 my one dog, Dot, would start whining and moving around until I’d go “yeah, OK, let’s feed you.”

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In our family, I’m the one who feeds the dogs and takes them out, because I’m a morning person. I enjoy it when it’s not fully light out, maybe making myself a coffee or taking a walk to this place called Project Bloom Coffee. It’s a little mom and pop kind of place and they have terrific coffee and breakfast sandwiches. They’re also a florist. Sometimes they even use this cool paper holder with a handle where, on one side you put the coffee and then on the other side you put your beautiful flower display. So then you get to walk home with your coffee and your flowers together and it’s something I’ve never seen anywhere else.

7:30 a.m.: Online chess

After I go get my coffee and walk the dogs, I’ll still be the only person up so I’ll get on my computer and get a couple of games of chess in. I play people from around the world online on Chess.com, and I usually either get frustrated or feel like I’m the best chess player in the world. Anyway, I’m getting my rating up on the app and I’m very excited about it. I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of chess tutorials on TikTok and YouTube that teach me how to play better.

9 a.m.: More coffee and “911”

If I go to Project Bloom, I’ll bring my wife a coffee and some flowers but if not, we have a little espresso and cappuccino maker so I’ll use that to make her a cappuccino, which I’ll bring to her in bed. She’s always very happy about that and then I’ll go try to wake my [16-year-old] daughter up, which usually takes about two or three tries until I take her phone, set the timer for five minutes, and then put it on the other side of her room so she has to get out of her bed to turn it off when it sounds.

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She and I have been religiously watching “911” recently. We started with Season 1 and now we’re about six or seven seasons in so I’ll make her breakfast — maybe a Nutella crepe with some little cherry tomatoes on the side, which is weird but she likes it or maybe some oatmeal — and then we’ll watch “911” and talk about our favorite characters, like Buck, Chimney and Bobby.

Noon: Lunch on the Westside

We have a little apartment in Marina Del Rey that’s right by the beach so sometimes I’ll go out there with the dogs, just to sit for a while and enjoy. I usually walk between the Venice pier and Washington Street, but sometimes I’ll go further north and walk along Venice Beach if I want to hang out with some freaky deakies.

When I’m over on that side of town, there’s a couple of places that I might go for food, like this Italian restaurant called Ospi that’s in Venice. They’re incredible. They make their own homemade pasta and it’s delicious. There’s also this chain called Guisados, and I love their tacos so sometimes I’ll do that too. Venice Ramen is good too, and they do these things called jumbo gyoza that are absolutely delicious. They’re like 2.5 times bigger than a normal gyoza, like palm-sized, and I really like them.

2 p.m.: Play practice and a pint

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My daughter is in two plays right now at this place called the Morgan-Wixson Theatre in Santa Monica, so it’s my responsibility to take her over there and drop her off for practice. When I do that, if it’s a Sunday, I might want to grab a Guinness somewhere and watch basketball. There’s a bar called Weary Livers down the street that has a lot of board games and it feels like you’re in somebody’s basement, which is good. It’s also right next to the Brixton, which is another nice bar that I’ll go to from time to time if I’m waiting for my daughter to finish rehearsal because it’s a lot of driving otherwise.

4 p.m.: Garage band practice

Typically on Sunday, we’ll also have a rehearsal for the Middle Aged Dad Jam Band. [Editor’s note: Marino co-founded the group with David Wain, whom he’s known since “The State” and who co-wrote “Wet Hot American Summer.”) We’ll play for a couple of hours in David’s garage, trying out new songs and working out what we’re going to do at our next live show.

6 p.m.: Guerilla promotion

Right now, David [Wain] and I are trying to figure out different promotional things we can do for our movie, “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass,” so maybe we’d do some more of that. It’s a really funny movie and we sold it at Sundance.

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Anyway, two Sundays ago we walked around with our friend Frank Barrera, who is also one of the camera operators on “Gail Daughtry.” We went to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and we shot promos for the movie where we were talking to different people and pretending that the Gail Daughtry cinematic universe is vast and has been around for decades, like we were asking people what their favorite Gail Daughtry movie is. It confused a lot of them, but every once in a while somebody would say something so we’re using those for promo spots.

I also spent some time just running up and down the street being very overly enthusiastic and screaming “the new Gail Daughtry movie is coming out!” and then we shot people’s reactions, which were typically “confusion” and “not caring.” Like, “Stop yelling at me, weirdo.”

7:30 p.m.: Thai takeout

On weekends, my wife and I like to order from a specific Thai place that’s won many awards. It’s called Luv 2 Eat Thai Bistro and it’s absolutely fantastic. The crab curry is so delicious and they do these street food sausages that we crave. They come with ginger and peanuts and garlic, plus a big slab of raw cabbage and some hot peppers and we’ll eat them like popcorn, just throwing them in our mouths while we catch up on “Survivor.” The flavor is just insane, and we think about how good they are all the time.

9:30 p.m.: Checkmate

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After we watch “Survivor,” usually what happens next is that we’ll end up going, “Should we watch a movie?” Then we’ll look around for a movie for a while and then my daughter will be like, “Hey, Mom! Come in here and watch this YouTube show with me” so my wife will get pulled away, and I’ll immediately pick up my computer and start playing chess again. I like to bookend my day with a quiet chess game in the morning and another quiet game at night. It’s a nice way to wind down.

I’ll typically play a minimum of about three games before my eyes start to close because they’re trying to fall asleep. That’s when I’ll quit because I’ll be making stupid moves and it affects my rating, like “Oh, I just lost that game because I fell asleep while my computer was on,” so that’s how I know when I’m done.

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Nearly half of Americans surveyed don’t know what America 250 commemorates

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Nearly half of Americans surveyed don’t know what America 250 commemorates

People visit the Liberty Bell on the eve of Independence Day in Philadelphia on July 3, 2025. The crack in this symbol of U.S. freedom echoes the paradox between national pride and civic ignorance revealed in a new national poll.

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Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images

A new national poll reveals a striking paradox in public sentiment ahead of America’s 250th anniversary: a disconnect between Americans’ strong patriotic pride and their lack of civic knowledge.

According to a survey from the libertarian Cato Institute think tank of more than 2,000 U.S. adults conducted in late June, 86% of respondents said they are grateful to be American and 70% believe the nation’s founding principles remain relevant.

However, nearly half of Americans (46%) don’t know that America’s 250th anniversary commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

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This civic ignorance extends to basic governance: Nearly 60% do not know the main purpose of the U.S. Constitution is to limit government power, and do not know why the colonies declared independence from Great Britain.

Furthermore, the report highlights deep anxieties about the future of American liberty.

The majority of those surveyed believe the country has strayed from its founding principles, and more than half fear the U.S. could cease to be a free country within the next 50 years, citing corruption and the abuse of power as primary threats. The majority of both Republicans and Democrats share these fears.

The concerns are especially pronounced among Gen Z respondents, who exhibited both the lowest levels of civic knowledge and the least favorable views of the nation’s founders. The majority of Gen Z failed to cite the adoption of the Declaration of Independence as the source of the 250th anniversary.

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“The lack of civic knowledge is a great disaster,” said Coe Professor of History and American Studies and Professor of Political Science Emeritus at Stanford University Jack Rakove. “Any democratic system of government to succeed requires having an informed electorate.”

The Pulitzer Prize-winning authority on the drafting of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence blamed the problem on the fragmented media landscape and schools prioritizing STEM subjects over civics and history.

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