Turn your kitchen window sill into a mini hydroponic patch
Vegetable scrap gardening is a thing. With little effort and a dose of creativity, you can build a window-sill garden using all kinds of vegetable odds and ends that would have otherwise ended up on the compost heap. This fun project is fantastic for getting the kids involved, not to mention a brilliant method to teach them about sustainability and reusing what nature offers us. And it’s not just for summer – your kitchen ledge can become a sprouting wonderland of colourful produce all year round.
Let’s start with the easiest vegetable to grow: lettuce
I love the almost-instant gratification of growing lettuce from scraps. It only takes a few days to see the initial leaves sprouting, with enough leaves for a salad in just one to two weeks. Start by placing the head/base of a lettuce head into a small shallow bowl or jar with 1-2cm of water in the bottom. Pop it somewhere with natural light and pick the leaves as desired.
Other vegetables that grow in heads, such as leek, celery, bok choy, or cabbage, can be cultivated similarly. However, they’ll take a bit longer to produce results. Keep your vegetable bases about 3cm thick when cutting them, with the root submerged in the water when placed in a dish. Refresh and top up the water every two to four days, as needed.
Once you have the hang of leafy greens, try sprouting bulb and root vegetables
Onion, fennel, lemongrass, beetroot and carrot are just some of the root vegetables you can regrow into thriving kitchen offerings. When it comes to beetroot scraps, the dark, leafy greens that shoot out of the top make a lovely addition to salads, as do the parsley-like greens that grow from carrots.
Slice off the ends, leaving about 2-3cm of the tip with the roots attached. Follow the same steps as with the leafy greens, immersing the roots in shallow water until the shoots grow. Ensure that you refresh the water every few days.
Once the roots or shoots look impressive, you can replant them in soil if you wish.
Sprout your own ginger and garlic
Other easy-to-regrow scraps are ginger and garlic. If you have a thumb-sized piece of ginger, allow it to dry out for at least a day or two if it has been freshly sliced, then plant the root scrap about 2-3cm deep in soil. After a few weeks, shoots will start to grow. Gently water every few days until you see nice growth, and then every week or so until it is ready to harvest, usually in about two to three months.
To grow an entire bulb of garlic using a single clove, follow the same steps as the ginger above, keeping the clove inside its papery skin. Push each clove into the soil about 2-3cm deep, with the tip side up.
Garlic doesn’t like too much moisture in its soil and is more successful when grown throughout the winter months. However, you can still grow a bulb when it’s warmer – it just won’t grow as large.
Sprouting garlic is another fun idea. Wrap your cloves in a damp paper towel and place in a warm spot.
In about two or three days, your cloves should begin to sprout. Transfer them to a small jar, submerge them in water, sprout side up, and allow them to grow. Snip the sprouts as needed and enjoy as you would chives – think salads, omelettes, dressings and the like.
Regrow a stem of basil
Next time you buy a fresh basil plant from the store, pluck most of the leaves from the plant, leaving a few at the top of each stem. Place the stems in a small jar filled with 2-3cm of water. The roots and new leaves will start growing in just a few days. Once the stems look mature enough, you can replant them in soil to continue growing.
Grow an avocado tree
This is the kitchen scrap my kids most enjoyed growing – their very own avocado tree. Well, the beginning of one, anyway.
First, gently clean the avocado pit, then allow it to dry out for a few days.
Decipher which part of the pit is the base and stick three or four toothpicks in the sides, spaced evenly around the circumference. Place it over a small glass or jar and pour water into the vessel until it reaches halfway up the pit. Refresh the water every five to seven days.
Within a few weeks, you should see roots and a sprout on the top emerge. Once your seedling is about 15cm tall, you can plant the tree in a pot outside.