Here's how to grow food from your bin scraps. What a time to be alive!

Hi, my name is Maggie, and I’m a closet hippie.

Look carefully, and clues of my secret om-shanti lifestyle will poke through my sequinned exterior.

Like little green tendrils sprouting through the earth, a sneaky Birkenstock, stashed yoga mat, or whiff of patchouli may hint at my alternative inclinations.

But one realm of my world that really gives the game away is my kitchen.

Jars of organic macadamia and cacao spread hide behind jars of coconut oil, whilst little pots of wildly growing herbs torment my neat-freak boyfriend.

And it’s about to get a whole lot wilder, because I just found out that I can GROW FOOD FROM MY BIN.

It all began when I saw an article that's doing the rounds online today, which demonstrates how you can grow a pineapple from....a pineapple.

Revolutionary stuff.

Anyway, it reminded me of a post I saw on one of my favourite food blogger's Instagram account a while back. She's a lovely vegan, and out-and-proud hippie named 'Wholy Goodness' who makes beautiful things with food.

The post I was thinking of was in set in her Berlin kitchen, where she was performing some kind of horticultural witchcraft.

Wholy Goodness was growing an avocado from an avocado pip.

Hey everyone ????☺ This is for all of you who have attempted to grow avocado plants from stones, and ended up throwing them out in despair, thinking your stones must have been duds. I started these three at the same time - in Feb. They took forever, but finally earlier this month two of them were ready to plant, and since putting them in soil they are getting larger every day. The third little guy took a bit longer. He had big strong roots before any green came out of the top. But now, there are two little green guys growing out of him and I will plant him later today. Hooray for growing plants out of veggie scraps. On another note, thank you to all the Berliners who entered my competition to win a dinner party. I will drop the winner out of a hat this evening, just in case there are any last minute entries. ????????????

A photo posted by Wholy Goodness (@wholygoodness) on Jun 22, 2014 at 3:00am PDT

And so my descent into the depths of DIY internet tips began.

With the haunting image of my oh-so-wasteful potato scrap/zucchini skin/orange pip-filled bin circling my imagination, I thought I would take a peek into the possibilities of Bin Gardening.

I gingerly typed into Google, 'growing food from scraps'.

The results were astounding. You could grow everything from lettuce to lemongrass, sprouts to sweet potatoes, ginger, apples, pumpkins, mushrooms, and more! It was like some kind of natural 3D printing machine!

And it was easy - most of the fruit and veggies only required being suspended in a small dish of water for a few days before settling into the new home of potted soil.

From here, they will link arms with Mother Nature and jig and jive until they spawn a magical miniature version of themselves.

MAGICAL DANCING VEGETABLES.

My closeted hippie squealed in delight. No longer would I have to pay double digits for a bag of organic mushrooms, or promise my first born for a handful of organic ginger. I will be a one-man, singin', dancin', sproutin' vegetable farm!

For example, why don't you...

MAKE AN ONION

• Cut the root of the onion off and make sure that you leave about a half an inch of onion when you do.
• Cover lightly with potting soil and keep in a sunny area.
• For green onions, simply put the white base with the roots intact in a container of water and place in direct sunlight.
• Change the water out every few days and the green will continue to grow. Just snip what you need and allow it to grow as long as you like.

OR MAKE A CHILLI

• Collect the seeds from your habaneros, jalapenos or any other chillis that you have on hand.
• Plant them in potting soil and keep in direct sunlight unless it is warm outside and then you can just plant them in your garden area.
• Chillis grow relatively fast and don’t require a lot of care. Once you get a new crop, just save some of the seeds for replanting again.

Love DIY? Why not create your own candles. (Post continues after video)

OR JUST GROW A CASUAL LETTUCE

• Place leftover lettuce leaves in a bowl with just a bit of water in the bottom.
• Keep the bowl somewhere that gets good sunlight and mist the leaves with water a couple of times each week.
• After 3 or 4 days, you will notice roots beginning to appear along with new leaves.
• When this happens you can transplant your lettuce or cabbage in soil.

OR INVENT A REAL-LIFE AVOCADO

• Wash the seed and use toothpicks to suspend it over water in a bowl or jar.
• The water should come up enough to cover the bottom inch of the seed.
• Keep the container in a warm place but not in direct sunlight and remember to check the water every day and add more as needed.
• It can take up to six weeks for the stem and roots to appear and once the stem reaches about 6 inches you will need to cut it down to 3 inches.
• When leaves begin appearing, you can plant the seed in soil, remembering to leave about half of it above ground.

***

I had found my new hobby.

Until recently, my home hobbies included reading, trying to pat the neighbors cat, and lying on the floor eating crackers and tzatziki.

But since we moved into our new house (with the new TV), my singular home hobby has been watching hours upon hours of the Kardashians.

My inner closeted hippie resents how much of my time I can commit to watching a harem of monotone Princess-Jasmine clones eat salads with plastic spoons and stare at each other with blank looks on their faces.

I'm not proud of my Kardashian habit, but I put it down to a gaping hole of Hobbydom in my life.

So, I'm going to start a Bin Farm.

As far as I can tell, that's pretty much the polar opposite of being emotionally invested in a TV family. I'm going to transform my remote-control-scrolling fingers into a veritable Green Thumb, and let my closeted hippie flag fly free.

I'm going to buy lots of little pots and some fresh soil, and I'm going to start planting my veggie scraps. I'm going to launch a HOBBY FARM made from my BIN.

Now taking orders from Maggie's (Bin) Farm.