Starting a Vegetable Garden from Kitchen Scraps

If you haven’t ventured into vegetable gardening yet, a fun way to start is by growing vegetables you’ve already purchased from the store by using their scraps to start new plants. Rather than throwing away or composting scraps from your vegetables, save them and watch the miracle of regrowth right before your eyes! Here are a few vegetables you can get started with, listed in order from easiest to most difficult.

Green Onion, Leeks and Fennel:

These three are the easiest vegetables to have a continuous supply always ready to use in your kitchen. Simply place the root end in a glass of water with the cut end out of the water. New growth will spring forth and can be trimmed off as needed.

Potatoes:

This is the classic grade-school project that can be fun as an adult as well! Cut the potatoes into pieces and keep in water until sprouts develop. They can then be planted in soil in a container.

Cabbage and Bok Choy:

You can either start the new growth by placing the root end in water or very damp soil. Sometimes soil works better with cabbage.

Garlic:

Place a garlic clove, pointed tip side up, in a container and cover with soil. Choose the largest clove from the bulb you have on hand. Place in a sunny spot in your home. As the greens start sprouting, trim them back, so as the new bulb is forming more nutrients will be channeled into the bulb.

Ginger:

Ginger is easy to regrow but takes more time for the new growth to mature—up to several months. Simply place a cut up piece of ginger in soil and keep in a sunny, indirectly lit, spot. After the ginger rhizome is large enough, pull from the soil, use in your recipes and save a piece to replant.

Avocado:

By far the most challenging to regrow, avocados can be a fun long term experiment. The easy part is getting the pit to sprout by suspending it with toothpicks over a cup of water. The challenging part is maintaining its growth and nurturing it until it’s ready to plant into the ground. It can take anywhere from 5 to 13 years for the tree to grow fruit and some trees never do!

We hope you enjoy starting your own indoor experimental garden from the produce of your choice! Growing plants in the home have many positive effects on our well-being and we think growing something you can eat pays off even more!