All the time at home this past year has caused many people, and bunnies, to take up new hobbies like learning an instrument, painting or learning how to play a game like chess. Miffy has always loved helping Father Bunny in their garden, so she’s been trying her green thumb growing all sorts of plants. You can watch Miffy start a garden in the episode Miffy Plants a Seed.
With the start of Spring right around the corner, she is creating a garden out of leftover food in her kitchen. She finds it so interesting that she can grow new plants out of old ones, reusing and recycling them to create something tasty and great that would have otherwise gone bad. You can create your own kitchen scrap garden using the directions below!
Materials:
- Vegetable and fruit scraps (oranges, lemons, limes, sweet potatoes, ginger and avocados work well)
- Growing containers (best containers for each type of plant are detailed below)
- Potting soil
- Water
Instructions:
- Scout your kitchen and refrigerator for potential vegetable and fruit candidates. Some of the best options are oranges, lemons, limes, sweet potatoes, ginger and avocados. Believe it or not, you can use all of these and many other vegetables and fruits to grow new plants.
- Plant the scraps in potting soil or immerse in water. The best method for encouraging new growth will depend on the plant and plant part represented. Here are specific instructions for some easy to plant scraps:
- Small Seeds:
- Citrus fruits are plentiful in winter, and the seeds in oranges, lemons, grapefruit, and limes are easy to grow into new houseplants. Fill a 4-inch-diameter pot with moistened potting soil. Remove whole seeds from the fruit and plant three to four of them one inch deep in the pot.
- The seeds should sprout in two to four weeks and you’ll have a mini-citrus orchard. Keep the seedlings well-watered for about six weeks and then transplant individual trees into bigger pots. It will be quite a while before you see citrus flowers or fruit, but you can still enjoy the leaves. The leaves smell like whatever type of citrus you’re growing, so be sure to try conducting some “rub and sniff” tests!
- Big Seeds:
- Try growing big seeds of tropical fruits such as mango and avocado. Let an avocado pit dry out for a day or two, then plant it in a 6-inch-diameter plastic pot filled with moistened potting soil. Leave the tip of the pit exposed to air.
- Another fun and easy way to sprout an avocado is to suspend the pit over a glass of water. Poke three toothpicks around the middle of a pit and rest the toothpicks on the rim of the glass. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the pit, then watch as the roots and sprout emerge. It can take a month or two for roots to appear. If using the water sprouting method, replant the pit in potting soil once roots and a sprout emerge.
- Potatoes and Ginger:
- Sweet potatoes and ginger are plant parts that that are easy to grow into new plants. Prop a sweet potato over a water-filled glass by poking three toothpicks in a circle into the middle of the potato and resting the toothpicks on the rim of the glass so that the narrower, pointed half of the potato is submerged in the water. Place the glass in a sunny window.
- Soon roots will begin to sprout from the portion in the water, and usually within a few weeks, stems and leaves will begin to grow from the top of the tuber. To keep your sweet potato as a houseplant, carefully transplant it into a container of potting soil once a substantial root system has developed.
- Ginger is particularly fun to grow because both the cut ends and the glossy new leaves (when crushed) emit a strong gingery aroma. Suspend a chunk of ginger with toothpicks over a glass of water or place it in a container of moistened potting soil. If using the water method, transfer the new plant to a container of potting soil once roots appear.
3. Place in a sunny window and watch your gardens grow!
Miffy Fun Activities 