Can’t Get Seeds? There’s a Garden Already Waiting in Your Pantry
Cuttings, roots, and produce you’re already buying as food can be planted for a bumper summer crop.
I got an early clue that these are indeed Uncertain Times when I started planning my backyard vegetable bed and found that seeds had become maddeningly tricky to source. My go-to garden center now has an arduous ordering system for tomato starts, and most of my favorite sites are completely sold out. With a little creative problem-solving, though, a lush vegetable garden is still obtainable, and you probably don’t even have to leave your kitchen. Refrigerator drawers, spice racks, and pantry shelves can hold a bountiful repository of baby plants-to-be. If you don’t believe me, stick some sesame or chia seeds in the dirt sometime and see what happens. And if you are already growing microgreens for salad, let the radish and broccoli grow past the sprout stage and harvest once they’re mature. I’ve already got a thick patch of daikon and lentils in my garden that I planted only a month ago.
Here are a dozen staples that, if tended, can produce your own green quarantine.