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They may call it weed, but what grows in Laurie MacEachern’s plot is more like the lush fields of corn near her rural home, southeast of Ottawa, than the goldenrod and wild parsnip in the ditch.

“Welcome to my garden,” she tells a rare recent visitor, surveying rows of luxuriant green plants that will be ready to harvest next month.

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In an area the size of a suburban backyard, the 57-year-old grandmother grows enough medical cannabis to last her a year.

Photo by Julie Oliver / Postmedia

Her garden, tucked behind a locked gate with a motion-activated alarm and floodlights, costs her about $300 a year. Buying what she needs from a licensed producer would be more than her entire $11,000 pension.

“I’m anxious to have people understand how easily it can be done,” MacEachern said. “The licensed (medical marijuana) producers say it’s not like geraniums. … No, it’s more like tomatoes.”

“I’ve been trying to prove a point. I have less than nothing and it takes less than nothing to do this. This is going to be enough to keep me healthy for a year.”