Did you know that you can save money and reduce waste by growing vegetables from leftovers you would normally throw away? So it is. There’s a whole list of vegetables, herbs (and even popular fruits) that grow from leftoverssaving your precious pennies and providing homemade food without pesticides.
And the best? You don’t need a lot of experience in horticulture: it’s all very simple to make and doesn’t require any fancy equipment – for many vegetables, all you need to get started at home is a bowl or pitcher of water and a sunny windowsill in the kitchen.
You don’t even need a garden! Growing vegetables from scraps is a skill worth learning. And in these financially uncertain times, it’s a wonderfully inexpensive idea that anyone can try.
But it’s also really fun to experiment with kids as a first activity. gardening. Plus, the result is free food! What more could you want?
Check out some species that you can take advantage of in this way:
Celery
Growing celery from scraps is easier than from seed, as even experienced gardeners find it tricky to germinate. You can start this free garden idea indoors with your celery stump in a bowl of water. It will grow fresh, tangy leaves in a few weeks.
Harvest them and add them to salads or use them to make pesto. If you have the space in your yard, plant celery outside in early summer and give it plenty of moisture – you’ll be cutting the crispy ribbed stems in a few months.
Use them to add extra flair to winter soups and stews, or raw with sauces for the summer.
Lettuce
When you’ve used up all your juicy lettuce leaves and are left with a brown stump unpromising looking, don’t throw it away! You can replant fresh salad leaves in a couple of weeks on the windowsill.
It’s really super easy and doesn’t need any previous gardening experience. For this reason, and because it’s so quick, it’s one of the best gardening activities for kids and one of the first ones to try if you’ve never tried growing vegetables from scraps before now.
And after using the newly grown leaves, put the stump back in fresh water and it will grow back. Great!
Scallion
Chives are delicious when added to salads and sandwiches, and the good news is that they will sprout in water in no time. Just like lettuce, they are so simple that they are one great vegetable to start and a perfect plant for beginners.
Grow them on your kitchen windowsill in a bowl, and within a few weeks you’ll be harvesting your own chive sprouts. You can also plant the bottom part with roots in the ground and grow to produce bulbs, which takes 3-4 weeks.
Or let your plants flower, which will produce seeds to collect. It’s an easy method to get free seeds that you can sow.
Carrot
Carrots can also be grown from scraps in water – you only need the top end of the carrot root to get started. First, you’ll get green asparagus-like foliage that you can cut and sauté or use to make carrot pesto.
Carrot leaves are extremely nutritious, being rich in potassium, with a flavor similar to parsley. If you are interested in how to grow whole carrots, transplant the tops into the yard and you will have fresh roots in 2-3 months. Let one of them bloom and you will have carrot seeds too.
Basil
These extremely useful herbs that we use all the time in cooking can be easily started from a stem left over in a jar or bowl of water. This is great, as it is difficult to keep them fresh for a long time in indoors and can be temperamental.
If you’re learning how to grow basil using leftovers, it’s best to start in spring or early summer. Keep them on hand for culinary use in a sunny kitchen window, indoors or outdoors as part of a vertical herb garden and harvest regularly.
For the best flavor, don’t let them bloom. Don’t harvest more than a third of the plant at once, and they’ll keep producing for you.
Pineapple
It is perfectly possible to regenerate a pineapple from a leftover fruit. You may have to wait a while as they can take two to three years, but it will certainly impress the neighbors when they are ready.
Pineapple plants are bromeliads and, like all other bromeliads, they flower once, produce a fruit, and promptly die. But you can propagate new plants by digging up the small plants or “pups” at the base.
Pineapples need space – they need to reach 2 meters to flower and need full sun, so it’s best to grow them in something like a home greenhouse in cooler climates.
Garlic
Learning how to grow garlic from leftovers at home takes up almost no space, so it’s easy if you don’t have any outside space. There are two methods to try – placing the cloves in a jar of water and scooping out the buds, or the garlic leaves, which have a milder flavor than the bulbs, and cutting into salads and sauces.
Or plant carnations outside as part of your below ground root budget backyard ideas. Organic guru Bob Flowerdew recommends doing this in the fall to see bulbs about five months later.
Plant garlic close to roses and fruit trees as a complementary planting method, he says, as the smell discourages pests, but keep it away from beans and peas.
Potato
You can grow an entire container full of potatoes from a few leftover potatoes with “eyes” on them. Okay, it’s less sure than buying seed potatoes from garden centers, but it’s free and perfect for a small vegetable garden.
If possible, choose organic varieties that are less likely to have been treated with growth-retardant chemicals to stop them from shooting.
Grow potatoes from scraps by cutting them into chunks and starting in water. After they shoot, plant in the ground or in a large bin in multipurpose compost, “eyes” up. Any type of potato can be used – you can also grow sweet potatoes this way.
Beet
Beetroot is one of the easiest vegetables to grow, so why not try growing it from scraps as well?
Beet greens are delicious eaten fresh in salads or chopped in stews, stir-fries and soups. Beetroot is another vegetable that grows easily in the water. Use the top part of the globe cut off with the leaves removed and the new ones will grow back.
If you can transplant them and grow beets in garden soil, they will produce leaves longer. Some beetroot varieties have particularly attractive colored leaves and are packed with good stuff – they contain iron, potassium and magnesium, as well as vitamin K.
If your leftover beets are healthy, you can even get a second crop from your garden.
Cress
Watercress is easy to grow, happy in the shade, and packed with vitamins and minerals. You can easily grow your own all-summer supply from leftover watercress, either as microgreens healthy on your kitchen windowsill, advises horticulture author Alys Fowler, or outdoors in damp soil or in a pot as part of her container gardening ideas.
Start in the spring, using the stems left over from the water to produce roots. After that, put in wet compost and continue to grow on your windowsill, or transfer it to a large garden planter or moist soil in a shaded spot outdoors, making sure it never dries out.
What vegetables can be grown in water?
There is a long list of vegetables that can easily grow in water. The easiest ones are probably lettuce, chives or garlic, but you could try lemongrass, onions, leeks, celery, carrots and beets too.
These are ideal for those without garden space. But stop root vegetableslike potatoes, turnips and carrot roots, you really need to plant them in the ground outdoors, in pots or raised beds.
Several of the best herbs to grow in your garden also root in water – the easiest are mint and basil. But also try rosemary, sage, coriander, oregano and thyme, which are a little more complicated and require a little more patience.
How to replant vegetables bought at a fair?
If you are interested in learning how to grow vegetables from scraps using store-bought vegetables, be sure to look up organic vegetables whenever possible when shopping. This is because they haven’t been treated with chemicals like growth retardants, which can stop them from sprouting. You can grow them in water or in the ground.
Use the veggies in the normal way, but keep the bits you would normally throw away. This is usually the base or stump, where the growth plates are situated – these are the pieces that will initiate growth.
You can also save leftover seeds from store-bought vegetables – try tomatoes, squashes, bell peppers, cucumbers – you will need to save them, keep them fresh and dry and sow them at the right time. You can also grow leftover ginger and horseradish tubers for your own stocks.
How to replant vegetables you already have at home in water?
Take a look at your fridge and vegetable basket and look again at the leftover bits you would otherwise throw away. For root crops, carrots and turnips, cut off the tops of the vegetables and the vegetation that grows from them and start them in water.
For scallions, bok choy, lettuce, celery, leeks, etc., you need the base part, usually a stump, which you start out in water. And of course, you can save the bell pepper, tomato and pumpkin seeds as above, for re-sowing.
If you find leftover watercress or herbs, start with stem cuttings – you’ll soon become addicted to growing vegetables from waste that would otherwise go to waste!
*Via Gardening Etc.