"Are you ready?" asks Natalie Carver as we round her beat-up hatchback onto a tree-lined street in Washington, DC.

It’s a quaint part of town, sprinkled with generously proportioned estates. From high boughs, above manicured lawns, warblers and sparrows emit throaty chirps.

We park in front of a three-story home, walk up the steps, and ring the bell. A man in his mid-30s answers with a smile, two toddlers tugging at his shirt. He’s a prototypical suburban dad: gel-swept side part, khaki shorts, flip-flops — the works.

"Head down," he tells us. "I’ll meet you there in a sec."

I follow Natalie through a chic living room, past a sprawling kitchen, down what seems like an endless staircase, into a private gym.

Natalie meanders around a punching bag and opens the door to a utility closet in the corner of the room. Inside, there is a tall canvas tent with Neoprene air ducts snaking up the wall. She unzips it and flicks on an LED lamp.

Four healthy marijuana plants bask in a purple glow.

As Natalie kneels to "tend the buds," the home’s proprietor — who insists on going by "Blaze" — comes in to survey her work.

"You know, I never thought I’d have a weed coach," he says.

"Why’d you decide to grow, again?" Natalie inquires from inside the closet.

"Why? Because I can. The law passed."

The "gardening" business

In February 2015, Washington, DC, passed Prop 71, which, among other things, made it fair game for anyone to cultivate up to six marijuana plants (three fully mature) for personal consumption.

The law made the District one of four places in the United States where growing weed is 100 percent legal in the confines of one’s home.

At the time, Natalie Carver and her business partner, "Maxine" (name changed), were running an urban farming business, teaching DC residents how to grow vegetable gardens on tiny rowhouse plots.

"It’s a simple business model," says Maxine, who still operates the business. "We do an initial consultation, charge a fee to set up a garden, then charge a smaller fee for monthly checkups.



Natalie’s gardening clients — many of them "not the type you’d expect to smoke weed" — began asking her if she grew marijuana too

As the company’s horticulture director, it was Natalie’s job to visit clients' homes and train them in the art of gardening. "It was very wholesome — we worked with a lot of families and kids," she says.

But after the marijuana cultivation law passed last year, something strange began to happen. Natalie’s gardening clients — many of them "not the type you’d expect to smoke weed" — began asking her if she grew marijuana too.

In the summer of 2015, Carver and Maxine launched Buds Organic, DC’s first "cannabis consulting" company.

A cannabis farmer renaissance

Natalie isn’t your stereotypical cannabis enthusiast.

She rolls her joints with rosemary, lavender, and mullein, a bronchial dilator used by Native Americans in spiritual ceremonies. Well-poised and articulate, she respects marijuana as a sommelier would a fine wine. To her, weed isn’t just a drug — it’s a crop.

This mentality appears to be part of a larger trend: that of traditionally minded farmers entering the cannabis industry.