'Garbage' garden will provide cheap, attractive entertainment

Q. Someone was talking about garbage gardening. What is that?

A. Garbage gardening is growing plants from your kitchen scraps. In every kitchen garbage bin there is a garden just waiting to be planted and on occasion, even bear edibles. We've all heard of soaking and rooting avocado seeds indoors. You can also grow apple and lemon trees from seed. Growing a pineapple plant is easy also; pineapple tops transform into attractive plants. Sweet potatoes or yams create a long handsome vine. It's fun to grow new plants with leftover fruits and vegetables.

You'll need potting soil, which generally refers to a soilless mix that its evenly moist, not wet. Containers may be any type of well-draining pot for garbage gardening with pits or plants. Try repurposing more garbage by using your egg cartons or margarine containers with drainage holes cut in the bottom.

Prior to germination, your garbage garden doesn't need light. However, once leaves begin to grow, your garbage growing plants require bright, indirect light. If your plants become spindly or are pale, more light is needed. Some seedlings require heat and some require cold to entice germination. Heat from below can be a radiator or a food warming tray.

Woody plants, such as apples, pears and peaches, require a cold period to shock them out of their dormant periods; this is referred to as stratification. To stratify such seeds, place your moistened seed flat in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.

Various fruits make an attractive indoor tree. Select ripe fruit and remove seeds. Wash and separate from pulp. Select full seeds. Stratify in the fridge covered with two times as much soil as the seed is wide. The length of time for stratification varies: apples, two to three months; peaches, three to four months; apricots, three to four weeks, pears, two to three months; cherries, four months; and plums, three months.

Plants several seeds at once since germination isn't high. Remember that some of your garbage gardening are experiments and may require tweaking conditions several times to attain an actual plant. Most of your garbage gardening will not yield produce, but will add variety to your household plants.

Water suspension, as mentioned earlier with regards to the avocado pit, can also be attempted with yams, sweet and white potatoes. Look for a potato with eyes and poke several toothpicks into the spud. Place this in a glass of water where the water only touches the lower third of the potato and then leave in a darkened area until you begin to see sprouting. Move the spud into the light, remove any shoots over 2-3 inches and watch it grow.

You can try this method with scallions, leeks, garlic and even lemon grass for an edible garbage garden. Or take garlic or onion bulbs that have started to sprout, plant into a small pot of potting mix or soilless container mix. Plant so the bulbs' shoulders are just below the surface. Place in a sunny spot and keep the soil moderately moist. As the green shoots grow, snip a few for salads or vegetable dip.

Keep in mind many plants are hybrids so their seeds will not yield the same fruits and vegetables. You may never get anything edible out of you garbage garden but its cheap entertainment.

— Terri Passolt

• Provided by Master Gardeners through the Master Gardener Answer Desk, Friendship Park Conservatory, Des Plaines, and University of Illinois Extension, North Cook Branch Office, Arlington Heights. Call (847) 298-3502 on Wednesdays or email northcookmg@gmail.com. Visit web.extension.illinois.edu/mg.