Thenatureofhome

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 you’d already given up on.

Let me show you the lazy way. No garde...

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 a garden post that oversells. You’re growing this one for the leav...

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 I half expected it not to work. It worked. It always works. The seeds are already in there, pac...

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 new leaves poking up by the weekend. It’s the instant gratifica...

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. The payoff is an endless supply of fr...