The topic of this story was provided by our review partner, Originated Media; SagaCity Media has editorial oversight over specific content.

Living in Portland makes almost everyone’s thumbs greener. The Japanese Garden, Crystal Springs Garden, Leach Botanical Garden: There’s a reason the city has so many amazing gardens, and it’s that, with our temperate climate, lots of different kinds of plants grow well in the Rose City. Including cannabis!

Fortunately for locals looking to grow their own, properly cared-for outdoor cannabis plants tend to thrive in Portland. There’s plenty of heat and sunlight, and the growing season is long enough that plants have plenty of time to reach impressive sizes during the vegetative stage before entering flowering.

The primary issue to watch out for in this part of the country is rain or excess moisture, which can cause mold to develop on your flowers—potentially ruining your crop. To prevent this scenario, choose to grow mold-resistant strains. If you grow indoors, invest in a good dehumidifier. If you grow outdoors, move potted plants indoors when it rains, or use some kind of protection for plants that you’re unable to move—covering plants with a tarp when it rains, for example, or constructing a portable roof out of scrap wood.

It’s the Law

Beyond learning how to grow healthy plants, of course, it’s crucial to learn about local legal requirements around growing your own weed. After all, no one wants to sing “I fought the law and the law won” and mean it. Here’s what you need to be aware of:

• The maximum number of plants that adult recreational users (21+) may grow is four per residence. (Patients and caregivers growing for medical use, by contrast, may have no more than 6 mature plants and 12 immature plants.)
  
  
• The personal possession limits are 2 ounces of usable marijuana in public and 8 ounces in your home. (Note that if you grow four plants—the legal limit—you may end up harvesting way more than 8 ounces.)
  
  
• Landlords can legally restrict marijuana use or growth on their property. If you’re a renter, the “better safe than sorry” path is to check in with your landlord before dropping a bunch of cash on seeds, soil, fertilizers, and containers for your first grow.
  
  
• You can gift your homegrown to other adults, but the amount gifted must be within personal possession limits, and there must be no financial consideration associated with the transfer—you can’t use your weed instead of cash, exchanging it for goods or services, for event admissions or cover charges, or use it to tip people for services rendered.
  
  
• It’s still illegal to smoke in public places. Just because you can grow your own, don’t think it means that you can smoke it in public. For the record, Oregon law defines a public place as “a place to which the general public has access and includes, but is not limited to, hallways, lobbies, and other parts of apartment houses and hotels not constituting rooms or apartments designed for actual residence, and highways, streets, schools, places of amusement, parks, playgrounds, and premises used in connection with public passenger transportation.”