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Every time I go to the supermarket, it’s always difficult to look at the price tag in the produce section.
I know that vegetables and fruit are an essential part of my diet, and restricting them would only impact my health. That’s when I started looking into gardening.
However, I don’t really have a small piece of land to plant any fruits or vegetables.
I instead got creative and found out which foods I can plant from my window sill using a little bit of water, sunlight and care.
All you need to do is hold on to those extra scraps in the kitchen.
Table of Contents
1. Green Onions
Difficulty: Easy
All you need is some green onions with the root still attached, a knife, and a container for holding the onions. Trim off the white roots of the green onions and place them in a small glass of water. Cover up most of the white part with water while leaving a small portion in the air. Place the container on a sunny window sill. You’ll start seeing results in a week and they should be fully grown in 3 weeks. Chop off the white root and repeat the process. This works best if you change the water out every 3 days.
2. Pineapple
Difficulty: Hard
Growing a pineapple indoors is a little bit more difficult, but not impossible. All you need to do is cut off the top portion of the pineapple and leave it floating on top of water in a container. You can use toothpicks to make the plant more stable. Keep the container in direct sunlight and wait about a week or two for the roots to appear. Once the roots are visible, transplant the pineapple directly into a pot of soil. Here’s a great youtube video that explains the process in more depth.
3. Lettuce
Difficulty: Moderate
Instead of throwing away that white, bottom part of romaine lettuce that no one likes to eat, go ahead and regrow it into a new head of lettuce. Place it in a bowl or glass with a little water at the bottom and wait about 2-3 weeks for it to grow. You’ll notice that roots are beginning to form. After this time you can go ahead and transplant the lettuce into a pot of soil. Make sure to mist the leaves occasionally with with water and change out the water every few days.
4. Celery
Difficulty: Moderate
Celery is incredibly simple to regrow from leftover scraps. Place the bottom part of the plant inside a small glass of water. Roots take about 2 1/2 weeks to appear or even longer. When the roots appear, go ahead and transplant the celery into a pot of soil. Have some patience with this one as it can take another few weeks once the plant is placed in soil.
5. Avocado
Difficulty: Hard
Don’t just regrow the avocado… regrow the entire tree. Cut the avocado in half and take out the big seed in the middle. Wash the seed off and stick a few toothpicks in it to keep it hovered above a glass. It’s important not to drown the seed. You want about half of the seed drenched in water and the other half exposed to the air. The first thing that’s going to happen is that your seed is going to crack and half and grow out the top. After a few months you should see a full grown stem coming out of the seed. At this point it’s safe to transplant to soil and have your very own avocado tree.
6. Ginger Root
Difficulty: Easy
This has to be one of the easiest foods that you can regrow. Simply buy ginger root from your local grocery store and soak it in water for 24 hours. Cut off the part with a stem on it and stick it in a container with soil. If the root doesn’t have a small stem sticking out of it, leaving it by the window sill will make it eventually grow one. Just take the plant, water it once a day, and in a few days you’ll start to see a tall grass coming out of the dirt. From there the ginger will start to grow more. It’s as easy as that. Just make sure that the temperature stays above 55 degrees farenheit. You can eat the grass that comes out
7. Lemongrass
Difficulty: Easy
Sometimes lemongrass can be extremely difficult to find at your local market. That’s why once you buy some, be sure to hold on to it so you can easily regrow more at home. This one is similar to growing green onions. Cut off a small piece of the end with a sharp knife, stick it in a glass with water and set it by the window sill. After a week you should notice some new grass coming out. From there you can transplant it to a pot of soil. This one can even grow during the wintertime.
8. Bean Sprouts
Difficulty: Easy
This one doesn’t take much work, but there a few steps involved. You can either chop off the bean part of the sprout or buy just the beans at your local grocery store. Soak them in a cup of water completely, mixing them around with your hand. Leave them soaked for 24 hours and the seed should start to germinate. After that, cover them in 2 paper towels, one on the bottom and one on top. Wait a few weeks and they should grow tall like grass!
9. Potatoes
Difficulty: Easy
Cut off a small piece (about 1/4) of your potato that has at least a few eyes on them. Let it dry for a few days on a towel on the top and bottom. Once they aren’t wet anymore, put them in a pot of soil that’s a few inches deep. Try to keep it out of cold weather and give it some sun if possible. Water every few days and in a few weeks you’ll have a potato plant growing in your own home.
10. Onions
Difficulty: Moderate
It doesn’t matter what color of onion you want to regrow, as they all use the same method. Take your knife and cut off a small portion of the top. Leave on the peel to prevent it from rotting and let it float in a cup of water. You don’t want it completely submerged, but just enough so it sticks out. Make sure the stub is the part that is upside down in the water. If green sprouts start growing, you know you’re on the right track. Change the water every other day.
11. Sweet Potatoes
Difficulty: Moderate
When we talked about growing regular potatoes, we mentioned that you need to cut the potato into small pieces and places it in a pot of soil watering it regularly. There’s also another method to grow regular potatoes or sweet potatoes. Instead of placing them in the soil, you’ll have much greater success if you cut them in half and use toothpicks to suspend them over a glass of water. The great thing about sweet potatoes is that they are an excellent staple food and lost a lot longer than normal ones. This is one of the healthiest vegetables you can grow and just a few will produce hundreds. Once they start to grow roots, you can put them in soil.
12. Garlic
Difficulty: Moderate
Garlic is another easy food to grow that can be done from taking one clove. Peel the skin off the clove and place it in a glass with a little bitter of water, completely soaking the garlic. Change the water every couple of days to avoid bacteria. Once shoots start to sprout after a couple of weeks, place the garlic in a pot of soil. Before you know it, you’ll have your own garlic cloves and shoots. Garlic really likes sunlight, so if possible place it near your window sill as much as possible.
13. Pumpkins
Difficulty: Moderate
While very simple to grow, we marked growing pumpkins as having a moderate difficulty due to its sheer size. After carving pumpkins on Halloween, save the seeds and spread them over soil and make sure to cover them completely. Water them daily and in a few months you’ll have a brand new pumpkin. This food is great as it can usually survive harsher weather conditions. Since pumpkins can grow to be quite large, it may be difficult to grow indoors in a small pot of soil.
14. Fennel
Difficulty: Moderate
Just cut off about an inch from the bottom of the fennel bulb and place it in a pot of soil. Give it about a cup of water daily and leave it in as much sunlight as possible. You’ll usually have to wait several months before you can harvest the crop. This is one of the easier foods to grow, but does require some soil. Just make sure that the fennel bulb is completely covered when planting it in soil.
15. Mushrooms
Difficulty: Easy
This technique can be used for any type of mushroom. For those of you who have bought portabellas before, this type of mushroom can be extremely expensive, so growing them at home can save you lots of money. The process of regrowing this plant from scraps is very easy Take off the head of the mushroom and plant the stalk in a pot of soil. Make sure to leave a little bit of the top area exposed and try to leave the plant in an area with high temperature and lots of humidity for best results. Wait a few weeks and you’ll have a new mushroom head. If you want, you can even watch this video on how to regrow you mushrooms in used coffee grounds.
16. Peppers
Difficulty: Easy
Whether it be bell peppers, cayenne peppers or jalapenos, any type of pepper is extremely easy to grow. When you cut the peppers in half, take the white seeds that you see inside and spread it over a pot of soil. Cover the seeds and water them daily with a nice dose of sunlight. Wait a couple of months and you’ll have a whole bunch of peppers growing in your pot of soil.
17. Tomatoes
Difficulty: Easy
Just like peppers, instead of throwing away or eating the seeds inside of tomatoes, cut them out, dry them off with a paper towel and cover them in a pot of soil. After a couple of weeks you’ll notice that the plant starts to be a couple of inches above the soil. At this point you can plant outside if desired. However, tomatoes don’t do well in cold weather so it might be best to leave indoors depending on where you live. Water every couple of days until you get a full-grown tomato plant in your very own kitchen.
18. Basil
Difficulty: Easy
Sprouting basil is just as easy growing green onions. Every stem has the ability to grow into a new plant. Take a stem that’s at least 6 inches long and place it in a small glass of water. After a about a week, you can transplant the plant into a pot of soil. It’s important to use high quality soil or else the plant will die and start to fall over. Give the plant water every 2 to 3 days, and in a few months the plant will be fully-matured. The plant will get quite big if left to keep growing, so use plant stakes to hold them up.
19. Cherries
Difficulty: Hard
A pound of cherries can easily cost $5 dollars or more. Instead, grow your very own cherry tree. It may take a long time before your cherry tree is fully grown, but it will definitely save you some money on this expensive, but delicious fruit. Take the pit of the cherry, clean it off and place it in a container full of soil. Water it regularly and after a few months you can transplant it into a pot of soil. Due to its size, I highly recommend moving this one outdoors, although it can be done from inside.
20. Cilantro
Difficulty: Easy
Regrowing cilantro is very similar to regrowing basil. Take a small stem that’s at least a few inches long and place it in a small glass of water. Don’t leave the plant completely submerged. When the roots grow to be 2-3 inches long, take the stem and transplant it into a pot of soil. In just a few weeks the plant will be ready to harvest and eat.
21. Cabbage
Difficulty: Easy
This can be done for both green an purple cabbage. Cut off a small slice at the end of the cabbage with the stem on it and put the stem facing down in a pot of soil with the rest facing up in the air. Make sure to water every couple of days and within a couple of months you’ll have a brand new piece of cabbage. For optimal growth, make sure to keep it in lots of sunlight.
22. Beets
Difficulty: Moderate
Beets are popularly grown for their roots, but their leaves are also edible. When you regrow this plant, make sure to get some extra vegetables by eating the leaves. Cut off the bottom portion of the beet where the root was and stick the bottom-half in water with the other half exposed to the air. This can be best done by sticking a few toothpicks in the side and leaving it hovering over a cup full of water. You’ll notice that roots will be a lot more elongated after 3 weeks. From this point you can transplant it into a pot of soil and wait a a month or two for it to fully mature.
23. Rutabagas
Difficulty: Moderate
Rutabagas take about 90 days until maturity and do quite well in the winter. After harvesting, you can even pressure can them or keep them in a cool cellar until you want to eat them. Planting them is very similar to planting a beet. Cut off a small slice at the bottom of the plant that has the root on it. Stick it over a cup of water and wait a few weeks until you see elongated roots. Once those are grown, transplant the rutabaga into soil and wait a few months until it’s fully grown. You’ll be surprised about how fresh and delicious it tastes when you grow it yourself.
24. Turnips
Difficulty: Moderate
We placed this plant near beets and rutabagas because the way they grow is very similar. All 3 plants start out growing roots along with green leaves sprouting out from the top. Cut off the end with the stem and wait for roots to grow. Once this happens after a couple of weeks, transplant the turnip to a pot of soil and wait about 3 months for the plant to fully mature. Just like beets and rutabagas, turnips do a lot better in harsher weather conditions than most other vegetables.
25. Carrots
Difficulty: Easy
You know the top part of the carrot that no one likes to eat? Keep it instead and grow a new one. What you need is a glass, some water and 1 inch of the carrot type. Remove any green that you find on the top of the carrot. This makes it easy to see if new green is sprouting out. Make sure to change the water every few days. After about 1 week you should notice some progress. This is when you can place it into a pot of soil. After about a month the carrot should be fully matured. This one is easy and excellent for kids.
26. Apples
Difficulty: Hard
Almost everyone loves apples, but no one likes to eat the seeds found within the core. Before you toss them, keep them and place one in a pot of soil. Water it daily and after a week or two you should notice a tall stem sticking out of soil. The problem with this fruit is that if you wait long enough, the apple can grow into a full-grown tree. This might be a little too big for your kitchen, but you’ll never be short of apples. This works for any type of apple. Keep the soil moist but not drenched in water.
27. Peaches
Difficulty: Hard
Peaches can be grown just like an apple. Take the seed from the core of the peach. Soak it in water for a day so that the seed starts to germinate. Dry off the seed completely with paper towels and place it in a pot of soil. Water it daily and keep the soil moist, but make sure not to drench it in water. Wait a week or two to see if you see a stem sticking out of the soil. After a while, you may want to consider transplanting your pot of soil to outside. If kept growing, this seed will grown into a full-size peach tree.
28. Lemons
Difficulty: Hard
Lemons are used in so many different types of recipes such as a topping to salad or even in tap water. Take the inner seed of a lemon and place it a few inches beneath the soil in a pot near your home. Near a window sill is preferable for sunlight. Water the pot every day keeping it moist but not drenched in water. If within a couple of weeks you notice a small, green stem sticking out from the dirt, the plant is healthy and will keep growing. In a few months you’ll be able to pick off a lemon from your brand new tree. If you’re afraid it might be too big for your kitchen, transplant it outside.
29. Hazelnuts
Difficulty: Hard
Instead of eating the nut, take one and dry it. Place it in a pot of soil and water it daily. When the plant becomes a few weeks old and you notice a stem sticking out from the soil, transplant it to outdoors. It’s best to save this one for the summer as hazelnut trees don’t do well defending themselves in cold weather. The only problem with growing hazelnuts is that a tree usually takes a few years before it can start bearing nuts. If you really love nuts and you’re patient, this one can be done.
30. Radishes
Difficulty: Moderate
All you need for this is a glass of water, toothpicks, potting soil and some radishes. Take a radish, cut it in half, and cut off some of the green leaves on the top, but make sure to leave at least a small portion. Place the top half dangling over water by using toothpicks to suspend it in air over the glass. Just make sure that it’s not completely submerged. In a few weeks you’ll notice that roots are starting to grow out from the bottom. From there you can transplant it to a pot of soil if desired. It’s a really easy process. If it doesn’t work, try using the bottom half instead.
31. Bok Choy
Difficulty: Easy
Regrowing bok choy is really easy and can be done just like lettuce. Cut off about an inch-long piece of bok choy from the bottom and place it in a glass of water. Wait about two weeks and you’ll already notice that leaves are fully-sprouted and roots have grown. If you want, you can eat the leaves now or continue to let it grow by transplanting it to soil. From there you’ll have to wait another couple of weeks. Just make sure to change the water every couple of days.
32. Leeks
Difficulty: Easy
Growing leeks has never been easier. All you need is some scraps along with a small glass of water. It’s along the same line as celery. Cut the leek down by the white part on the bottom leaving the roots in-tact. Put a few toothpicks in it to suspend it in the water, giving it some stability and making it so it’s not completely submerged in the water. Every couple of days change the water. Within a few weeks you’ll have fully-sprouted leeks. Cut off the white part again and regrow them a second time. You can transplant this one to soil, but not necessary.
33. Rosemary
Difficulty: Moderate
Rosemary can easily be regrown by using cuttings. You’ll most likely need a pot of soil for this one. Cut off a leaf or stem from a big plant and place it in a cup of water and let it grow for a few weeks. After that, transplant it to soil, keeping the soil moist but not drenched. Wait a few months and you’ll have a fully-grown rosemary plant. This one doesn’t do too well in the winter, so try and save it as a summer project.
34. Mint
Difficulty: Moderate
Mint is an excellent leaf for taste and is a great plant to grow indoors due to its high price. Similar to rosemary, take off a stem and place it in water for a few weeks. It will start to sprout roots. At this point, it’s best to transplant this one to soil if you want it to sprout into a whole new plant. Wait a month or two and you have a full mint plant. I love taking these leaves for mixed drinks and smoothies.
35. Lemon Balm
Difficulty: Moderate
Lemon balm is true to its name with a nice, bright, lemony scent. You’ll definitely want to use soil for best results with this plant. First take off a small leave and place it in water for a few weeks. Once roots start to grow out, transplant the stem into a pot of soil. It should be ready in about two months. Make sure to water 1-2 times a day, but don’t make the soil too wet. This one is my personal favorite to grow since it freshens up the scent of the kitchen.
Final Thoughts
By regrowing vegetables at home, you can cut off a lot of money from your monthly grocery bill. Produce is only getting more and more expensive along with the price of gas. Do yourself a favor by growing fresh fruit and vegetables from your very own kitchen.
Since you’re going to be growing at home, it’s best to buy organic plants. Even though it’s slightly more expensive, you’ll only be buying at organic prices one time. From there, you can keep using scraps to regrow the same plant over and over again.
See a plant that’s not on the list and is easy to regrow? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy frugaling!
