Did you know that many of the veggies and herbs you pick up from your local grocer can easily be regrown at home? We certainly didn’t! Aside from it being a wonderfully sustainable way to recycle those kitchen scraps, this easy veggie patch is also a fun and educational activity to do with the kids.
They’ll absolutely love coming downstairs each morning to see if their windowsill veggie patch has sprouted overnight. Not to mention, it’s been said that kids are more likely to gobble up their tucker when they’ve grown and made the meals themselves. Win-win!
And to the busy parents reading, you’ll absolutely love that you can find each of the DIY bits and bobs in the one handy location – your local Stockland centre.
Here’s what you’ll need:
-
Various small-medium glass jars or bowls (clear so the kids can watch as the roots grow)
- Wooden skewers
- Permanent marker
- Veggie/herb scraps
Our favourite veggies and herbs to propagate (regrow):
- Beets
- Celery
- Lettuce
- Spring onion
- Carrots
Here’s how to do it:
Beets
Take the top of the beet and place it in a shallow dish or cupcake tin of water and beet greens will slowly begin to sprout. It’s as simple as that!
Tip: plant the beet tops in a pot with soil for an extended harvest.
Celery
Cut the base of the celery and about halfway down, horizontally thread two wooden skewers in a criss-cross. Then place the celery base in a shallow dish of water. This will stop it from tipping over!
Once roots begin to grow, you can remove from the water dish and plant in a pot with soil for longer harvest.
Lettuce
Take the base we often cut from a head of lettuce and place it in a glass jar of water. We’ve found Cos (or Romaine) lettuce to work best.
Place the jar somewhere with plenty of light and watch how quickly it grows!
Spring onion
When cutting the spring onion, leave about 3-4 centimetres above the roots for optimal propagation. Take the roots and place them in glass jars.
Spring onion is one of the easiest vegetables to regrow at home, so the impatient little ones will love these. You should start to see growth in as little as 1-2 days!
Carrot
Cut the base of the carrot about 2 centimetres thick and place in a shallow dish of water, with the cut surface facing down. It will soon begin to sprout!
Healthy eating made simple for the whole family
One of our favourite parts about creating a veggie patch DIY using the kitchen scraps that would normally find their way into the compost (sorry worms), is the wonder, amusement, and learning opportunity it provides for our kids. Take a conscious moment to teach them about how vegetables and herbs are grown and how they can eat the rainbow using only the freshest ingredients they’ve literally grown themselves. It can sometimes be a challenge introducing new foods to the little ones, but when they’ve grown them at home it makes the meal that much more exciting, and that much more likely they’ll give them a try.
Tip: while the kids are in the kitchen why not try out these kid-friendly cooking ideas!
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