Gardening

You slice into a beautiful red cabbage, and there’s that hard little core at the bottom. Straight in the bin, every time. Right? Not anymore. That base is still very much alive, and it will grow you a fresh supply of tender purple leaves on a sunny windowsill. No garden needed. No green thumb required. … Read more

You buy the bunch of carrots with the leafy tops still on. You hack the greens off over the trash can. You cook the carrots. You just threw away the part that grows back. Carrot tops regrow into a steady supply of feathery green leaves, and here’s the part most people don’t know: those leaves … Read more

Here’s a fact that breaks people’s brains: a single sweet potato from the grocery store can become a whole bed of new ones. Not one plant. A dozen. That one knobby tuber is a slip factory. And slips are how to grow sweet potatoes from scratch, for free, starting right on your kitchen counter. Let … Read more

You know the one. Shoved at the back of the pantry, gone a little soft, pushing out pale little tentacles. You were about to toss it. Don’t. That potato is trying to become more potatoes. Let it. One forgotten spud can hand you a whole bag of new potatoes, for the price of a potato … Read more

You scooped out the avocado. You made the toast. You went to chuck the big pit in the bin. Hold on. That pit is a tree. A glossy, gorgeous little houseplant tree, and it costs you nothing but the avocado you were already eating. Let me be straight with you up front, because I hate … Read more

Take a tomato. Cut a slice off it. Lay that slice on some soil. Wait. In a week or two, a little forest of tomato seedlings pushes up out of the dirt. From a slice. That you were going to put on a sandwich. I know how it sounds. The first time I did it … Read more

You buy a lettuce. You strip the leaves. You toss the little stump at the bottom in the bin. Stop doing that. That stump is a free second lettuce. It just hasn’t grown yet. Here’s the part people don’t believe until they see it: lettuce is fast. Plant a stump on Monday and you’ve got … Read more

You already paid for them. Now grow them again. For free. Here’s the deal. Every bunch of green onions comes with a built-in plant. The roots. That pale little tangle at the bottom you’ve been chucking in the trash. Don’t. I regrow green onions on my windowsill year round. Takes about four seconds of effort. … Read more