Regrow Those Veggies From Kitchen Scraps
With all the extra time I have (hahahahaha…there is no such thing when you’re a Mom!) I love to “work” on my garden. Yes, it has definitely taken me some time to understand how to keep produce alive, but I have found so many fun little quirky things about growing my own food that makes it fun, easy, and truly rewarding!
Plot A Garden
No, you do not need acres and acres of land to have a garden (although, man, what an amazing dream!). With all kinds of modern technology, you can even have a garden right in your kitchen all year round! Pretty amazing! (Which I do…Lettucegrow, but today we are talking about a true soil garden!) All you need is a widow sill that gets about 4-6 hours of sun every day, and a small garden bed. I have two raised garden beds that are 8’ x 2’ and 4’ x 4’. I create my own mixture of soil by layering my compost (along with some “gifted gold” from my chickens) and adding top soil every season.
Buy Produce
This may seem like the most obvious thing, and even possibly the oddest thing I could say, because I am literally writing a blog about growing your own veggies from kitchen scraps; but, you must have whole produce in order to have kitchen scraps. Now this will not work with all produce, but there are quite a few that you can easily transform from kitchen scraps to a thriving veggie garden feature:
Celery
Green Onion (Scallions)
Romaine Lettuce
Potatoes
Herbs
Garlic
Ginger & Turmeric
Peppers
Tomatoes
There are so many different veggie varieties that you can regrow from kitchen scratch…it really comes down to playing with your food! Yup, I said it, Play With Your Food!
Greens, Herbs, & Stalks
These guys are so easy to regrow your toddler can do this. All that needs to be done, is cutting the produce about 2 inches from the root of the plant, and place it in a glass container. Fill it with fresh water every 2-3 days. Once it starts to sprout about 3-4 inches, it can be transplanted into a garden bed. Celery stalks and lettuce make take a bit longer to sprout than herbs and onions. I just like to manage them in the kitchen window sill until I know they are healthy enough to venture outside.
Potatoes & Garlic
Cut the potatoes (the ones that look like they are growing warts) into half or quarters (depending on size), or leave a garlic clove in its casing, and let them dry out on the counter over night. Then plop them into soil outside. The garlic needs to be placed with the pointy end facing the top of the soil. Watch for their sprouts to shoot up in a few weeks!
Ginger & Turmeric
Soak the rooted end in warm water over night. Then move them outside, and plant them sideways so the roots systems can spread out, not down. You will see green shoots appear that will grow pretty tall before they should be harvested.
Peppers & Tomatoes
Simply take the seeds from these plants, place them in a small pot with soil covering them, but just barely. Water them really well daily on your window sill. Soon, you will see sprouting emerge. Once they sprout about 3-4 inches, move them outside.
Water Your Plants
Once the veggies make it outside, it’s not a set it and forget it thing. If you do not have a drip system built in (which is super easy to set up on your own! I did this and put it on a timer…GAME CHANGER!), you will need to water your plants daily or every other day, depending on the season. Too much water can be equally damaging. This is why setting up a drip system with a timer is the key. You control when and how long to water your plants! So yes, now you can go on vacation and your plants won’t go thirsty and die!
Putting It All Together
It sounds like a lot, but it’s really not. You can put up your garden bed(s) and start adding your compost to the bottom of it while you work on sprouting your veggies. You will be amazed at how much we humans can compost in a matter of 3-6 weeks! (Make composting even faster by investing in an automatic composter if you like…I have a Lomi countertop one and it is perfect for my needs, and there are a lot more out there.) By the time your veggies are ready to transplant, all you’ll need to do is add top soil. Always check the soil you purchase at any DIY home store. Make sure it is organic, pesticide free, and made for garden beds. There is absolutely a difference! Once you get all of your Regrown veggies transpalnted and snug in your garden bed, give them a good soak, and watch them thrive! The longest amount of time that will be spent nurturing the garden and veggies is a couple hours every season to add in more soil and compost. The daily visits are about 5 minutes (if that) the check on your thriving veggies. Other than that, the plants just do their thing!
Now, this is not a tutorial on “how to make your own flourishing veggie garden”. That is not me! I will not even pretend to be an expert! There are plenty of amazing gardeners out there to help you if you would like that tutorial! I am here to tell you that if I can grow my own veggies, you can do it too! Yes, you can easily go out and buy sprouted seedlings at the DIY store (or the Farmers Market-where I get some of mine at the turn of the season!), but why not repurpose the produce that is perfectly good, and still trying to serve it’s purpose…to feed you! Plus, it’s a lot of fun to play with your food!
