Are you finding it hard to source seeds and seedlings? Guess what? You can grow your own fruit and vege using leftovers from the kitchen.

The hard ends of bokchoy, lettuce and cabbages, bits of garlic, ginger, carrots, onion, and spring onions, and of course the seeds from many fruits and vege will sprout into new growth with a bit of tender loving care and attention.

To demonstrate this niffy wee gardening trick, we’ll get you started with how to grow a crop of tomatoes and a healthy harvest of spuds!

How to grow tomato plants from your kitchen scraps…

What you need:

• Old, organic ripe tomato
  (variety of your choice, but cherry tomatoes may be best for a smaller windowsill plant)

• Seedling pots or, if you don’t have pots, try egg shell halves or toilet paper rolls.

• Soil
  (Tomato Mix is best)

• Space for the larger tomato plants to grow

• Tomato cage or tomatoes ladder (optional)

• Paper Towels

• Tweezers

What to do:

1. Open your ripened tomato and carefully remove the seeds.
   If you don’t want to plant them immediately, you can lay the seeds out on a damp paper towel and keep them in the shade.
   

2. Prepare your starter pots with the soil.
   Push a seed into each pot until they are just covered with soil (about 5 mm deep). The seeds are very small, so using tweezers can make this a bit easier.
   

3. Keep your planted seeds inside and give them lots of water and light - ensuring that they don’t dry out.
   TIP: We put our pots in a small starter tray with a clear lid which worked like a mini greenhouse. You can buy these, or dome covered pots from your local garden centre.
   

4. When your tomato plants are about 7-8 cm tall, it’s time to transfer them to a larger pot. Plant them deep into the soil, up to their first set of leaves.
   It might look odd planting them this deep, but the small white hairs on their stems can develop into roots. Planting them deep, enables the plant to grow a strong healthy root system!
   

5. Give your plants lots of sunlight and water.
   If the weather is still warm, plant your tomatoes in the garden. When they have grown to be about 15 cm tall, secure them with a tomato cage or ladder to keep them supported.

Top Tip: Tomatoes love the sun.

You can grow them successfully in pots in a sunny position inside too!

How to grow potatoes from your kitchen scraps…

Did you know the little bumps you sometimes see growing on potatoes are called eyes?

They aren’t watching you though… this is the potato trying to sprout leaves so that they can get more sunlight and grow more tasty spuds.

What you need:

• Old potatoes with `eyes’.

• Space outside for them to grow. They grow best in rows about 15-20 cm deep and three feet apart, but if you are short on space you can grow them in deep tubs too. 

What to do:

1. Pop your potatoes deep into the soil, with the eyes or leaves facing upwards. As the plant grows, keep piling soil up around it.   
   TIP: To speed things up, you can `chit’ the potatoes first. This means leaving them in the sun and allowing their leaves to grow a bit first before planting them.

2. After 60-100 days turn the soil to see how many potatoes you have in your harvest.

GOOD TO KNOW: The fruit and vegetables that buy from the shops many be hybrid varieties, which may not produce anything or may grow an earlier variety.

For more guaranteed succeed, you should use organic fruit and vegetables from your local farmers market or from someone’s established garden… with permission of course!

Which scraps will you save and grow? Send in a photo of your crop!