Gardener's expert tips for turning food scraps into fresh vegetables for free
The next time you throw your in the food bin, take another look. Chances are that you'll be able to use them to grow more produce, and saving money on your veg shop in one fell swoop.
It's the message that gardener Simon Akeroyd is trying to get across via his hit account (@simonakerodygardener) and on , where he's amassed 1.5 million followers. He's now collected his wisdom and experience in his new book,, which outlines how to cultivate anything from and raspberries to fresh lettuces, all in the comfort of your own home.
And you too can learn to grow delicious fresh ingredients from discarded fruit and vegetables, says the former gardener for the , the and ’s garden Greenway, "It’s amazing how much you can grow easily. And it’s all from food that you’d be chucking away anyway,” he tells . Here's Simon's guide to what you can grow from which scraps...
Lettuce from the stalkCut a 3cm stump from the base of the lettuce and place the base in a bowl of water about 1cm deep. Leave on a sunny windowsill and in 10 days you will see new leaves emerging. Plant the lettuce base about 1cm deep in a pot filled with compost and water a couple of times a week. Harvest the leaves as they grow. It won’t grow into a round but you’ll get new fresh leaves coming off it.
Chickpeas from dried seed I’ve made my own with the plants I grew from dried chickpeas. Soak a handful of dried for 24 hours. Drain and leave to dry on kitchen paper. After a day or two, the seeds will form small shoots. Sow them in 9cm pots and grow on a sunny windowsill until late spring. Shoots should emerge in 14-21 days. Either keep growing them indoors in containers or, once the seedlings are 10cm high and the risk of frosts has passed, sow them outside, 15cm apart. The chickpeas should be ready between mid-to-late summer.
These are so easy, you can’t stop them growing. Grow them in nice soil and they should taste amazing. Fill a container with compost to a depth of 3cm (add drainage holes), place a couple of slices of tomato on the compost then cover them to a depth of 2cm. Put them on a windowsill, keep them watered and they’ll soon sprout. Once they grow leaves, you can transplant them into individual pots. Keep them somewhere warm and sunny until they are about 15cm high. They can be planted outside after the risk of frost is over.
This is a really good one to get started on, it’s so easy. Take the ends of your , retaining 2cm of the white stem. Add drainage holes to a supermarket container or punnet, add 5cm compost and push the spring onions 1cm into the soil, 3cm apart. Keep on a sunny windowsill and water twice a week. After about 20 days, you can snip off the fresh stems with scissors. They’ll regrow after cutting, too.
Potatoes are incredibly easy to grow. Leave them in a dark cupboard until they start to send out shoots. Add 10cm compost to a large pot, bin liner or bag (poke drainage holes in the bottom of a bag and roll the sides down halfway). Put three potatoes on the compost followed by another 10cm of compost. Place somewhere sunny outdoors and water weekly if it hasn’t rained. As shoots emerge, add more compost to just below the tops of the foliage. When flowers appear, the potatoes can be harvested, or you can leave them longer to grow larger.
Cut the base of the red cabbage, leaving a 2cm stub. Put in a dish or jar with 1cm of water and place on a sunny windowsill. Change the water every few days. After one or two weeks, you’ll see leaves emerging from the base. Plant in compost on the windowsill. You can follow the same method with pak choi, Savoy cabbage and kale.
Garlic from a cloveTake a with cloves that feel hard or firm. Fill a small jar with water and rest the bulb on top, making sure the base of the bulb is hovering above the water (you could push two cocktail sticks into opposite sides of the bulb and rest the sticks on the jar). Leave the jar on a warm, sunny windowsill.
After about 10 days, roots will emerge from the base and shoots from the top. Remove the bulb from the water and break into individual cloves. Plant the cloves in a large pot, 12cm apart, 2cm below the surface. Water occasionally during dry spells. Each clove should form a brand-new bulb. Garlic is ready to harvest from mid- to late summer.
Mint is fantastically easy. Take a 10cm sprig, remove the lowest two-thirds of the leaves, stick it in a jar of water and roots should appear in two or three weeks. Plant individual stems into 9cm pots of compost. Keep on your windowsill.
Take a raspberry, crush it in a sieve, scrape the seeds out and spread them out to dry on kitchen paper for a few days. Take a seed tray filled with compost and place the cut-up kitchen paper on top. Cover with 1cm of compost and leave on a warm, sunny windowsill. After a few weeks, seedlings should emerge. Pot them into 9cm of compost. When they reach 15cm, they can be planted in the garden.
Take one teabag, open it and sprinkle the contents over a container of compost. Leave it somewhere warm or put a little plastic bag over it to keep the humidity levels up. You’ll get camomile plants coming off it which you can prick out and pot on individually and keep on your windowsill. Flowerheads should appear during summer. Pick these and dry them to make your own herbal tea.
Wet a piece of kitchen paper on a plate and sprinkle the seeds over the top. Water it once every two or three days (don't do it too often because it can go mouldy but don't let it dry up completely, either). Within seven to 10 days, you've got . Trim them when they’re about 3cm high and add to your meals.
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