How To: Grow Fresh Produce from Your Leftover Groceries

Next time you make a salad, don’t throw away the core you cut from the bottom of your lettuce. Instead, poke a few toothpicks into the bottom to make a little stand, and set the core in a jar. Fill it with water until the bottom of the lettuce is covered by about an inch. After it has sat in a sunny window for a couple of weeks, you’ll see new leaves growing out from the center. You can plant it in the ground or in a pot of soil; harvest the leaves as they grow big enough to eat.

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Basil is easy to propagate from cuttings. Just use kitchen scissors or a sharp knife to clip a two- to three-inch sprig just below a leaf node (where new leaves are starting to grow). Pull off any larger leaves next to these new ones, and submerge the node in a jar of water. Place the jar in a sunny windowsill and change the water every other day. Within a week, you’ll see roots emerge. Once those roots have grown about two inches, the herb is ready to plant outside or in a pot.

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If you’ve got a particularly juicy and wonderful tomato, save a few of the seeds to grow new plants next year. Simply squeeze some pulp onto a paper towel, and let the seeds dry out for a week. Then, store the seeds in an envelope until January, when you'll plant them in light potting soil and keep them moist in a sunny window. By spring, they’ll be ready to move out to the garden, and you’ll have tomatoes all summer long.

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You can’t grow a turnip from scraps, but you can grow turnip greens to enjoy in salads! In fact, this same method works for carrot tops and beet greens too. Make sure you buy root vegetables that still have the greens attached. Then, cut them about two inches from the top and place the tops in water, cut side down. Keep them in the sun and make sure you keep the water level consistent. Harvest greens as you need them.

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If you’ve got some extra lentils (or other beans) at the bottom of the bag, use them to grow bean sprouts. Put them in a glass jar and fill with water to soak overnight. Then, pour off the water and drain the beans. Sit the jar in a sunny window, and rinse the beans every day. In a week or less, you’ll have homegrown sprouts to harvest for salads, sandwiches, and other dishes.

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For more about easy gardening solutions, consider:

10 New Perennials to Perk Up Your Garden

12 Tiny Gardens You Can Grow on a Tabletop

Growing Up: 10 Inventive DIY Vertical Gardens

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