Can You Grow Hemp in the Back Garden

Hemp is becoming increasingly established as an important element in the natural medicine industry. This is almost entirely due to the recent popularisation of its primary active constituent — a cannabinoid known as cannabidiol (CBD) — by medical research documenting its medicinal and therapeutic potential. Recent studies have shown that CBD has applications in ameliorating symptoms of a variety of common neurophysiological disorders, including chronic pain, sleeplessness, anxiety and depression.

Terpenes are another reason for the skyrocketing consumer interest and demand around hemp. Hundreds of cannabis terpenes occur naturally in most common strains of the hemp plant. Like CBD, terpenes are currently being studied for their possible applications in the future of medicine. However, consumers are most interested in terpenes for the distinctive flavours and aromas they add into anything from hygiene products to food and beverages in a process called terpene infusion.

With demand for hemp going through the roof, more people than ever before are looking into home hemp cultivation as well as the current laws and regulations around it. Let’s go over everything you need to know to stay within the law while growing your own hemp for home infusions and DIY products.

Getting a Licence

In order to obtain a licence for growing hemp, you must be a registered commercial enterprise with suitable farmland to lay down a plot. As of this writing, it is illegal for private homeowners to grow hemp in their back gardens.

You can apply for a licence with the Home Office online using form MD-29 on their Drug Licensing website. Applicants must fill out required fields in detail, with the most important being:

• Your full name and contact information (phone, home address, email etc)
• Your intended field location names or grid references
• Accurate hectarage information
• An up-to-date and clearly marked map of the intended growing area
• Your target seed type and its THC content by strain

Applicants must also undergo a DBS check, and be ready to pay up to £580 for their application fee. In rare cases, a plot compliance inspection visit may be deemed necessary, with additional costs to be shouldered by the applicant.

Because hemp is a crop under restricted status, the Home Office has only granted hemp cultivation licences to business entities with registered farmland. As of this writing, it has yet to grant a licence to private cultivators looking to grow hemp in their back garden.

What “Restricted Status” Means for Licence Holders

Hemp is unlikely to become a cash cow for licensed growers the way it is in America anytime soon, due to several restrictions on cultivation and harvest put in place by the Home Office. Among the most important items on this list are:

• Growers must obtain a licence before they begin cultivating hemp
• Growers must inform their local police when they begin cultivating hemp, as confusion between hemp and other varieties of cannabis — such as marijuana — is still quite commonplace
• The Home Office may limit or relocate your crops at its discretion if they are deemed too close to sensitive public areas, such as schools or transit stops
• Growers are only allowed to harvest the seeds and stalks of their crops, and are required to destroy trichomes as well as flowers at their earliest convenience

Due to the restrictions and difficulty around obtaining a hemp licence, most DIYers and aspiring private growers currently opt to simply source their CBD from local farms or dispensaries when looking to use it in home infusions.

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