WILDFLOWER GARDEN CONCEALS MARIJUANA

Owner Finds Pot Plants By Accident

In Kentucky, marijuana turns up in the darnedest places.

A few years ago, Kentucky State Police harvested 200 plants from a
cornfield at Lane's End, the grassy Woodford County horse spread owned by
Will Farish, the current ambassador to Great Britain and longtime buddy of
the elder George Bush.

Then cannabis sprouted from the planters in front of the Fayette County
courthouse.

And yesterday, Bill and Pat Kimbrell found four potted pot plants in the
middle of their wildflower garden behind their home of 31 years in the
Lansdowne neighborhood.

It is commonplace for cultivators of weed to plant it on property that
belongs to others -- or land that is publicly owned (interstate
rights-of-way are popular).

What sets the Kimbrells apart is that they took their find with
extraordinary good humor, even though this was their second find in the
same gar-den.They made a similar find two years ago and duly reported it to
the Lexington police, as they did again yesterday.

At the ages of 59 and 57 respectively, Bill and Pat admit that they date
from that bygone age of Aquarius and reefer.

"My wife and I are products of the '60s but we skipped the flower-child
generation," said Bill Kimbrell, a retired entrepreneur who sold surgical
supplies.

After a lifetime of honing his business acumen, Bill Kimbrell has a gripe
with whoever is choosing his wife's wildflowers as cover for an illegal crop.

"Facing Social Security sooner rather than later, and living on a fixed
income, I resent that a cash crop is being grown on my property and I am
not reaping the harvest," he says.

Bill Kimbrell discovered the marijuana with an engineer as they trooped
through the garden -- on an empty cul-de-sac lot next door to their home,
but blocked from their view by a privacy fence -- determining how to
rejuvenate the wildflowers.

Pat Kimbrell said the drought three years ago left the garden in sad shape.
"Ever since then, it's gone to pot," she said. "There's been an abundance
of weeds."

And just a little weed.