From kitchen to garden

02/25/25 Let's talk table scraps; 

Personally, the easiest way to start growing anything is by regrowing the table scraps right from my kitchen. The ends of an onion, left over garlic that started sprouting that little tiny green stem at the tip, or tomato seeds from slices of tomato from today's lunch. Even the ugly parts of a potato I cut off, because I didn't like how it looked, as long as that part of the potato has the 'eye.' The eye of the potato are axillary or nodes that are the growing points of a new potato.

There are so many other produce I can list just by looking in my fridge alone. If you're ever curious about a certain fruit or vegetable that's lying around in your kitchen, pause for a moment and ask yourself " Is this trash? Or is this the start, (or new addition), to a garden?" A quick google search and you'll most likely have your answer. I have a story that personally inspired me to start gardening again.

One day I went outside to take my dog for a walk and realized my front yard was a mess. The grass was over grown and leaves had fallen from the bushes onto the driveway. Looking around I decided the lawn could wait and go to retrieve the rake from the side of the house next to the orange tree. As I'm raking the leaves from under the bushes, my rake get's caught and I tug a bit until I see I'm caught on this unfamiliar long green plant. I set down my rake and go to brush the leaves out of the way. Under the leaves there was an entire onion!

It must have rolled out of the grocery bags one night, when I was carrying the bags from the car into the house, and landed into the bushes. A closer examination and I see the bottom part of the onion had rooted itself into the dirt and the top half had started to grow impressively long.

I didn't know if it would survive or if it would even reproduce but I decided to leave it alone. Now I'm intrigued, more than intrigued, I'm freaking inspired! I immediately stop what I'm doing, head inside, and go straight to the kitchen. I grab a couple cloves of garlic off the kitchen table and see that some green already started sprouting on the top part of the clove.

After some quick research on google and seeing that this specific time of year is perfect for planting, not only garlic, but onions too. I instantly have faith the onion will be fine and get to work by proceeding to cut off the of the bottom part of the garlic so new roots can begin to grow once I place it in the soil. I go back to the driveway and plant them directly into the ground, across from the onion.

Now I don't know if any of it it will grow but there was something about being outside. My hands in the dirt, seeing that onion doing it's thing, it's resilience, it's very nature to survive and thrive given the right environment. Just enough to set its roots. It's pretty magical the entirety of it all. Endless possibilities right at our fingertips. 

Anyways this is the end of my post for today, I hope you were a little bit inspired to start or continue gardening. 

Best wishes;

- Eden