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If you’ve ever harboured thoughts about starting your own vegetable garden, now’s your chance. You don’t even need a garden, as many vegetables will grow well in a garden box or even an indoor pot, as long as there’s access to sunlight.
You don’t need seeds to start your quarantine vegetable garden, you can grow all the vegetables you need from the scraps of vegetables you have in your refrigerator. So don’t bin those stalks, peels and cores, you can recycle them to regrow your own vegetables. Here’s how.
Lettuce
Leafy vegetables like lettuce, cabbage and bok choi are some of the easiest things to grow from scraps. It’s best to use the heart of the plant if you have it (just place in a bowl of shallow water), but you can use loose leaves if you’ve bought them from a packet. Spray the leaves with water every second day. When you see roots shooting from them, transfer to soil.
Celery
Just place the bottom of a celery bunch in a dish of water. Keep in direct sunlight and transfer to the soil when the new stalks shoot up.
Onions
Cut the top half off the onion and leave in a dish of water. Transfer to soil when the shoots are long enough. Scallions can be left in a glass of water and new growth will sprout.
Potatoes
Just take the peels with eyes on them - or even better the ones that have already begun to sprout - cut them into coin-sized pieces, with two or three eyes each and plant in soil. They will grow either in pots or in a garden. After a few weeks you’ll see the leaves shooting up.
Sweet potatoes
Take a sweet potato and cut it in half, stick two toothpicks in either side and balance it over a jar of water. After a few days roots will appear on your potato and shoots will appear on the top. When the shoots grow to about four inches, pinch them off and place in a glass of water. When roots appear on these, transfer to soil.
Ginger
Ginger grows very easily and all you have to do is plant a piece of the rhizome in soil, with the buds facing up. You’ll see shoots growing in a couple of weeks. You can pull it up and use the ginger anytime you want a replant.
Mushrooms
Mushrooms are notoriously hard to grow, so do it in a pot, indoors if you can. Keep the stalks of your mushrooms and plant them in soil. You can add some of your leftover coffee grounds to the soils as mushrooms like acidic soil. Water and cover with cling film. Keep out of direct sunlight and check the moisture of the soil regularly.
Carrots
Save the tops of your carrots and place in a dish of water. When the roots are long enough, transfer them to the soil outdoors.
Lemongrass
Just take the leftover root and place in a dish of water, keep in direct sunlight. When you notice new growth you can transfer to soil.
Avocado
One of the internet’s favourite plants to grow from the stone. Just clean it and suspend it over water with toothpicks. Keep it out of direct sunlight, so in a kitchen corner is perfect. When the roots seem to reach the water, trim them back. The sapling will shoot up from the stone - when it’s sturdy enough you can transfer to soil, just leave half the bulb above the ground when you plant.
Garlic
Simply plant some cloves top-down in soil and they will sprout. When the shoots sprout up, cut them back and a bulb will form. You can remove part of the bulb and repeat the process to have multiple plants.
Pepper
You can grow plants from all kinds of peppers, just keep the seeds and dry them out. Plant in soil and cover with cling film. When the shoots are big enough they can be transferred outdoors.
Chef Jerry James Stone created the below infographic with Whole Foods:
