Food waste no more! Turn scraps into fresh produce with these expert tips

Everyone loves a freebie – and now you can grow the ingredients for entire meals from your leftovers, thanks to the expertise of gardener Simon Akeroyd.

He’s a former gardener for the National Trust, the Royal Horticultural Society and Agatha Christie’s garden Greenway, and he’s passionate about showing how gardening can be fun, rewarding and environmentally friendly. During the pandemic, his teenage daughter suggested he try his hand at social media and his and posts have since amassed 1.5m followers.

Here, the infectiously enthusiastic gardener shares 11 of his most ingenious food-growing hacks. “It’s amazing how much you can grow easily,” he says. “And it’s all from food that you’d be chucking away anyway.”

With zero experience or specialist equipment, you too can learn to cultivate delicious fresh ingredients from discarded fruit and vegetables…

Spring onions from the roots

This is a really good one to get started on, it’s so easy. Take the ends of your spring onions, retaining 2cm of the white stem.

Add drainage holes to a supermarket container or punnet, add 5cm compost and push the spring onions 1cm into the soil, 3cm apart. Keep on a sunny windowsill and water twice a week.

After about 20 days, you can snip off the fresh stems with scissors. They’ll regrow after cutting, too.

Tomatoes from tomato slices

These are so easy, you can’t stop them growing. Grow them in nice soil and they should taste amazing.

Fill a container with compost to a depth of 3cm (add drainage holes), place a couple of slices of tomato on the compost then cover them to a depth of 2cm. Put them on a windowsill, keep them watered and they’ll soon sprout.

Once they grow leaves, you can transplant them into individual pots. Keep them somewhere warm and sunny until they are about 15cm high. They can be planted outside after the risk of frost is over.

Lettuce from the stalk

Cut a 3cm stump from the base of the lettuce and place the base in a bowl of water about 1cm deep.

Leave on a sunny windowsill and in 10 days you will see new leaves emerging.

Plant the lettuce base about 1cm deep in a pot filled with compost and water a couple of times a week.

Harvest the leaves as they grow. It won’t grow into a round lettuce but you’ll get new fresh leaves coming off it.

Potatoes from tubers

Potatoes are incredibly easy to grow. Leave them in a dark cupboard until they start to send out shoots. Add 10cm compost to a large pot, bin liner or compost bag (poke drainage holes in the bottom of a bag and roll the sides down halfway).

Put three potatoes on the compost followed by another 10cm of compost. Place somewhere sunny outdoors and water weekly if it hasn’t rained.

As shoots emerge, add more compost to just below the tops of the foliage. When flowers appear, the potatoes can be harvested, or you can leave them longer to grow larger.

Red cabbage from the base

Cut the base of the red cabbage, leaving a 2cm stub. Put in a dish or jar with 1cm of water and place on a sunny windowsill. Change the water every few days.

After one or two weeks, you’ll see leaves emerging from the base. Plant in compost on the windowsill. You can follow the same method with pak choi, Savoy cabbage and kale.

Garlic from a clove

Take a bulb of garlic with cloves that feel hard or firm. Fill a small jar with water and rest the bulb on top, making sure the base of the bulb is hovering above the water (you could push two cocktail sticks into opposite sides of the bulb and rest the sticks on the jar). Leave the jar on a warm, sunny windowsill.

After about 10 days, roots will emerge from the base and shoots from the top. Remove the bulb from the water and break into individual cloves. Plant the cloves in a large pot, 12cm apart, 2cm below the surface. Water occasionally during dry spells. Each clove should form a brand-new bulb. Garlic is ready to harvest from mid- to late summer.

Mint from cuttings

Mint is fantastically easy. Take a 10cm sprig, remove the lowest two-thirds of the leaves, stick it in a jar of water and roots should appear in two or three weeks.

Plant individual stems into 9cm pots of compost. Keep on your windowsill.

Raspberries from fresh seed

Take a raspberry, crush it in a sieve, scrape the seeds out and spread them out to dry on kitchen paper for a few days.

Take a seed tray filled with compost and place the cut-up kitchen paper on top. Cover with 1cm of compost and leave on a warm, sunny windowsill.

After a few weeks, seedlings should emerge. Pot them into 9cm of compost. When they reach 15cm, they can be planted in the garden.

Camomile from a teabag

Take one teabag, open it and sprinkle the contents over a container of compost. Leave it somewhere warm or put a little plastic bag over it to keep the humidity levels up.

You’ll get camomile plants coming off it which you can prick out and pot on individually and keep on your windowsill. Flowerheads should appear during summer. Pick these and dry them to make your own herbal tea.

Chickpeas from dried seed

I’ve made my own houmous with the plants I grew from dried chickpeas. Soak a handful of dried chickpeas for 24 hours. Drain and leave to dry on kitchen paper.

After a day or two, the seeds will form small shoots. Sow them in 9cm pots and grow on a sunny windowsill until late spring.

Shoots should emerge in 14-21 days. Either keep growing them indoors in containers or, once the seedlings are 10cm high and the risk of frosts has passed, sow them outside, 15cm apart. The chickpeas should be ready between mid-to-late summer.

Chia from seed

Wet a piece of kitchen paper on a plate and sprinkle the seeds over the top. Water it once every two or three days (don’t do it too often because it can go mouldy but don’t let it dry up completely, either). Within seven to 10 days, you’ve got microgreens. Trim them when they’re about 3cm high and add to your meals.

Grow Your Groceries: 40 Hacks For Growing Plants From Your Weekly Shop (DK), £16.99 is out now