Do you want to get even more out of your garden this year? Or maybe you want to save a little money on your produce bill. Did you know that there are some vegetables you can re-grow after you've eaten them? And you don't have to plant any seeds. Sounds a little bit like science fiction, but it's true! Here are a few vegetable re-growing ideas you might want to try.

The easiest vegetable I've re-grown is a green onion. After you've chopped down all the green on your green onions, stick the white onion bulbs (scallions) in a shallow glass of water. In a day or two, you will notice your onions starting to grow green shoots again. Within a week's time, you will have a new, fresh batch of green onions. In fact, I once used the same package of green onions I bought at the grocery store for a whole month! I just kept cutting them down and re-growing them.

I have also re-grown romaine lettuce. After the leaves are gone, place the hard, white bottom into a jar of water. In about 3-4 days, new leaves will begin to appear, but it will take a couple of weeks to harvest a new batch. Some people recommend taking the lettuce out to the jar once it has started growing and put it in some soil, but mine seemed to grow just fine with water only. I did have to change the water and rinse off the base every day or two.

Another vegetable that is easy to re-grow is celery. Just like the onions and lettuce, you take the base of the celery and place it in a shallow glass of water. Keep the celery in as much sunlight as possible throughout the day. In about a week's time, you will notice it starting to grow again. At this point, you can transplant it into some soil to help it continue growing. Pretty soon, you'll have a fresh batch of stalks to snack on!

I have not tried this one, but ginger root is supposedly very easy to re-grow as well. You take the leftover root and plant it in a pot of soil. Ginger root does well in a warm, moist environment, but not in direct sunlight. This makes it a perfect plant to grow indoors. New shoots and roots will begin to grow. The shoots make a great house plant while you are waiting to harvest the roots.

Here are some other veggies and herbs that will re-grow from kitchen scraps.

-Lemongrass

-Basil

-Potatoes

-Sweet Potatoes

-Garlic

-Bok Choy

-Mushrooms

-Cilantro

And you'll never guess which fruit you can re-grow… a pineapple! But, you will have to patient, very patient. It will take about 3 years! And it will require a lot more work. You can find instructions how to re-grow a pineapple on this website.

www.rickswoodshopcreations.com

Happy re-growing!