Steve

5 Veggies You Can Grow From Kitchen Scraps

by Steve | Apr 13, 2020 | Gardening, Kitchen Scraps

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First, let me start off with saying there are definitely waaaay more than just 5 veggies you can grow from kitchen scraps, these are just the first ones I tried.

With the Corona Virus causing our vacation rental business to come to a screeching halt, we started putting our attention to other interests.

The latest project we’ve taken on is starting a garden, most likely a container garden.

During my perusing on Pinterest, I found a pin on regrowing vegetables from the kitchen scraps.

I just started this project but already have quite a few types of veggies that can be regrown from kitchen scraps.

Like I said, there’s probably many more vegetables you can do this with, but this is a list of the ones I started with.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. If you decide to purchase any of these products, we earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. We recommend these products only because we have experience with them and use them for our own projects. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.

5 Vegetables You Can Grow From Kitchen Scraps

#1 – Lettuce

This seems to work with all kinds of lettuce, so far I’ve got butter, red leaf and romaine lettuce regrowing from kitchen scraps.

Out of the 3 the romaine seems to have a head start. To be fair, I was apparently more generous with the amount of base I left on the root – I’m guessing that would make a difference.

5 Veggies You Can Grow From Kitchen Scraps - Lettuce

How To Start

When cutting the base of your lettuce head off, cut it about 1 1/2 – 2″ from the bottom. Then take the base and put it in a container with a bit of water on the bottom.

Make sure to change out the water every couple of days and in a few days you’ll start seeing new growth emerging from the center of the base.

Once you a good amount of growth, your new lettuce plant will probably be happier in soil. I’ve read that it would do fine in water, as long as you change out the water every couple of days.

Personally, when I planted the lettuce in the ground I noticed it started growing better. Maybe its just my imagination, but I’m placing my plants in the soil once they start showing signs of new growth.

Update: I learned recently that lettuce will shoot up right away when the temperature is above 70 degrees. Since we’re in Florida, those temps make it difficult for us to grow lettuce indoors. We keep the temperature around 75 degrees and the romaine lettuce I was testing with, shot straight up.

I’m trying again, this time with butter lettuce. As soon as the lettuce started growing new leaves I put it in dirt. Lets see if that improves things.

I’ll update this post with its progress.

#2 – Basil

We had a long and leggy basil plant that wasn’t producing many leaves anymore. So I figured I’d try to use a cutting to start a new plant.

So far, the basil I’m trying this with hasn’t made any new roots but I’m pretty confident that it will start rooting shortly.

The cutting looks like it’s doing well in the water, and from what I’ve read, basil is a piece of cake to grow from cuttings.

How To Start

You’ll want to give the cutting enough stem so that it can sit in water without the leaves touching the water. If the leaves sit in the water they’ll start rotting and the water will get cloudy and your cutting will probably die off.

So give the cutting a couple of inches of stem.

Take your cutting and place it in a container with enough water for about an inch of the stem to sit in the water.

Place it in a bright area without direct sunlight and wait. 🙂

5 Veggies You Can Grow From Kitchen Scraps - Basil

#3 – Onions

The onions seem to grow pretty easily, it’s been a week and they look like they’re ready to be put into dirt.

Not sure if an actual whole onion will grow from this experiment but the green stems that grow from it can be used in cooking. The entire plant had an onion flavor.

5 Veggies You Can Grow From Kitchen Scraps - Onions

#4 – Scallions

The scallions are the rock stars of my kitchen scrap garden! They have been in water for maybe about 5 days and have several inches of new growth already on them.

How To Start

Similar to the lettuce cuttings, when you cut the base of the scallions off cut it a bit higher than usual. About a couple of inches of the plant from the base.

Put them in a container with water on the bottom and you are all set.

Since they usually already have some roots, these guys didn’t waste any time growing.

5 Veggies You Can Grow From Kitchen Scraps - Scallions

#5 – Garlic

Ok, so this isn’t exactly using kitchen scraps, since you’re taking the entire unused clove and sticking it into the ground.

Maybe it’s more like a garden tithing. 🙂

I took a few small cloves of garlic and planted them in the dirt next to the tomato slice. They were in the dirt about 3 days and I’m starting to see some green on the tops of a few of the cloves.

I’m guessing they could have also had the base of the garlic sitting in a little puddle of water to get it to start growing but I tried sticking it directly in the ground and that seemed to work like a charm.

Caring For Your Kitchen Scrap Garden

It’s pretty straight-forward to care for it. Place them in an area that is bright but doesn’t have direct sun. For the scraps that are in water make sure to swap out the water every day or other day and for the scraps in dirt make sure their dirt stays moist – without over watering.

Before you know it you’ll start seeing new growth and your kitchen scrap garden will by off to the races! 🙂

Once the kitchen plants turn more into plants (either they grow roots are start growing new leaves) I’ll transplant them into grow bags.

Tip: When cutting the vegetable it seems to help to leave a bit of “meat” along with it. The lettuce and onions that I cut short didn’t seem to grow as fast or well compared to the ones where I left some more “meat”.

That’s My Kitchen Scrap Garden List

There are probably dozens of other veggies you can try this with, these are just the ones I’ve started with. I’m sure I’ll be adding other scraps to the list as I come across new ones.

Once the veggies grow a bit I’ll be transferring them to grow bags.

What did you think? I know I personally will never look at kitchen scraps the same way again. 🙂

Have you ever tried recycling your kitchen scraps? If so what veggies did you try? Did it work for you?

Lemme know in the comments below.

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3 Time Saving Tips For DIY Plank Plywood Floors

by Steve | Dec 13, 2019 | Flooring, plywood, Plywood Flooring, Poconos, Rustic

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Now that we have two DIY plank plywood floors projects (the dining room and the living room) under our belts, we’ve learned a bunch of things – things to do and things not to do. We’re going to cover 3 Time Saving Tips For DIY Wide Plank Plywood Floors.

If you’re planning on making your own wide plank flooring made from plywood, then make sure to take a look at this list – it will save you tons of time… and sanity :).

We wrote detailed articles for each of those projects (see below for links) but we also wanted to write a short article highlighting the biggest time saving tips we have.

Here are the 3 things you need to know for making your own wide plank plywood floors. Following these tips will make your project go smoothly and you’ll end up with better-looking plywood floors.

DIY Plank Plywood Floors Tips

A Bonus Tip First – Cut The Boards Yourself

Yeah, it’s a little different to get the bonus tip first, but a few of the tips piggy back on this one. So it makes sense to share this first.

And I know that cutting the boards yourself sounds like the opposite of a time saver, but let me explain.

There are a few posts out there that recommend having the person at Lowes or Home Depot cut the plywood into planks for you.

I know that sounds like it would save you tons of time, because you’re offloading the cutting on them, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that.

We’ve had home improvement stores cut the plywood for us on other projects in the past.

Although it does save you time – we don’t think it’s worth it. Their cuts are not very accurate, like really inaccurate.

That may be perfectly find for certain projects, but with this project consistent cuts are important.

Having boards that are all about the same width allows your project to go smoother, easier and the end result will look much nicer.

#1 Make A Jig

OMG – If I didn’t use a jig I don’t know if I would have ever finished this project. The jig gives you consistent cuts and also allows you to easily rip through the pile of plywood.

The next best tool to use would have been the table saw, but it’s a super distant second to using a jig.

The jig wasn’t hard to make and it didn’t take very much time.

Take a look at the jig details in the dining room flooring article.

There you’ll find out how to make one and how how to attach it to the circular saw.

DIY Rustic Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - Secure The Jig To The Circular Saw Using Screws

#2 Don’t Use A Plywood Blade

This deserves another OMG. I tried using a plywood blade to cut the plywood into planks initially and that was a BIG MISTAKE!

Ignore the plywood blades – instead, use the cross-cut blades.

Like I said in the dining room flooring article, the plywood blade didn’t even make it through two sheets of plywood.

When I used the cross-cut blade, a single blade did the rest of the plywood for the dining room and also the living room!!

If you’re keeping score, the plywood blade barely ripped 2 sheets of plywood into planks and the cross-cut blade did 19 sheets – and it can still do more.

This is hands down the best blade for cutting plywood planks. It cut through the plywood like butter, and also didn’t splinter the wood at all.

(Click the picture to order the same blade we used on Amazon)

The best blade to cut your plywood planks is a cross cut balde

#3 Skip Sanding Between Polyurethane Coats

When we did the dining room floor, we lightly sanded the bumps out of the coat of polyurethane with 120 grit sandpaper.

It’s what I’ve always thought you needed to do between coats and it’s also what I read in other plywood flooring blog posts.

With the living room floors, we figured that the bumps would even out a little after multiple coats of the poly were applied.

3 Time Saving Tips For DIY Wide Plank Flooring - Skip The Sanding Between Polyurethane Coats

Besides, the bumps would add a bit more texture making the floors less slippery.

The only concern we had was how it would feel walking barefoot on the floor with more texture. When we ran our hands on the planks we could clearly feel the additional texture, so we were a bit nervous.

Well, it turns out, the additional texture was barely noticeable when walking on the floor barefoot. Phew, that was a relief!

There You Have It

Those are our time saving tips for DIY wide plank plywood floors. These few simple tips will save you HOURS and HOURS of time. Without them, our project would have taken A LOT longer and would have been harder to do.

The first two tips alone will save you from pulling your hair out!

We hope they will help you with your own wide plank plywood flooring.

Let us know what you think!

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DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood

by Steve | Nov 30, 2019 | Flooring, plywood, Plywood Flooring, Poconos, Rustic

DIY Rustic Farmhouse Wide Plank Plywood Flooring - a closeup of the distressing and Knots

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The first farmhouse wide plank flooring made from plywood project we did was in the dining room earlier in the year.

Well, we loved it so much we did the same wide plank flooring in the living room.

For the most part, both the floors were done the same way, with a couple of exceptions. In this article, we’ll go over the differences between the two floors.

Check out the dining room plywood floor article to see more of the step by step details.

As far as time goes, the dining room’s wide plank flooring took about a week to finish and the living room took a lot longer.

The living room is a bit bigger, but what really added time to the project were the shimming and the end grain flooring inlay.

From start to finish, it took a little over two weeks to finish the living room floor.

What We Did Different With This Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring

The methods we used for the flooring in the dining room and the living room were pretty much the same.

In the living room, we pulled up the old carpet, removed staples, painted the sub-floor a dark color and put down the floor the same way it was done in the dining room.

The width, length and thickness of the plywood planks was the same, and we cut, sanded, distressed, stained and added 3 coats of polyurethane to the flooring in almost the same way.

There were some small changes we made that saved us a little time and may have added some more character to the plywood plank floor.

Here are the things we did a bit differently this go around.

We Didn’t Sand Between Polyurethane Coats

When we did the dining room floor, we lightly sanded the bumps out of the coat of polyurethane with 120 grit sandpaper.

With the living room floors, we figured that the bumps on the plywood planks would even out a little after multiple coats of poly were applied.

Besides, the bumps would add a bit more texture making the floors less slippery. Not that the dining room floors are slippery – it was just a way of justifying it in my head. 😉

The only concern I had was how it would feel walking barefoot on the floor with more texture.

Turns out, despite clearly feeling the additional texture when running your hand on the plank, it was barely noticeable when walking on it barefoot.

The Shopping List

Tools List

Here’s a list of the tools we used on this project, it’s basically the same list of tools from the dining room flooring project.

Affiliate links below may be to similar items when exact items couldn’t be found online.

Cordless Finish Nailer

Extra Battery For Finish Nailer

Oscillating Multi-Tool

Hearing Protection Ear Muffs

Table Saw

Supplies List

These are the supplies used on this project.

Affiliate links below may be to similar items when exact items couldn’t be found online.

Varathane Cherrywood Gel Stain – we used about 7 quarts

Water Based Oil-Modified Poluyrathane – we used 2 gallons

3″ Natural Bristle brush – 6 brushes to apply the stain

4″ Polyester Synthetic Brush – 4 brushes to apply the poly

Masking Paper – We used the masking paper to protect the deck when applying the stain and poly

6 Gauge 1 1/2″ Finish Nails

A New Character Builder Was Used

The same original cast of character builders was used with the plywood planks in the living room. A hammer, pliers, and a propane torch… and this time we added a utility knife to the arsenal.

For the dining room, we would dig into cracks in the wood using the sanders to open the cracks up and soften the edges.

This time we used a utility knife to lengthen and widen the cracks in the wood.

Then we softened the edges of the cracks with the sander.

The result was even better than we imagined.

The deep cracks we made with the utility knife gave us the aged, farmhouse wide plank flooring look we were going for.

You wouldn’t even guess that it was plywood.

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished - Close up of the Distressing Done With A Utility Knife

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We Added Shims

The living room floors were much more uneven than the floors in the dining room.

To the point where we needed to add shims in the low spots to try and level things off a little.

I went around the floor with a straight edge, and where ever there was a dip, I added shims.

Since I knew I needed a good amount of shims, I made them out of a sheet of 1/4″ plywood. I ripped the sheet into 1″ strips using the table saw.

Once the floor was shimmed, we painted the floor a dark brown color, just like we did in the dining room.

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished - Wood Strips Used To Fill The Low Spots

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished - Starting The Plywood Flooring Install

The Living Room Plywood Floor Is Finished!

Like I said, the living room floor took much longer to do than the dining room floor did. It took a little over two weeks to finish, had I not messed up with the wood slice accent flooring, we would have finished in about 2 weeks.

Check out the wood slice accent flooring project here

We love the farmhouse wide plank flooring in both the dining room and the living room. This style was the perfect fit for this house, we couldn’t have imagined a better fit.

Between the two floors, I’d say I’d stick to the steps used on the living room floor.

Sanding between poly coats seems to have been unnecessary, and using the utility knife to expand on the cracks in the wood added sooo much more character to the living room floor – LOVE IT!

Here are a few more pictures of the stained plywood floors on the living room floor.

Let me know what you think, is there something you would have done differently?

Share your thoughts in the comments below!

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished - Close up of the Distressing

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - Close up of The Plywood Floor In The Living Room By The Wood Accent

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished - Finished Plywood Floor Seen From The Stairs

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor In The Living Room By The Wood Accent

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished - Another Close up of the Distressing

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished - Seen From The Corner Of The Fireplace

DIY Farmhouse Wide Plank Flooring Made From Plywood - The Plywood Floor Finished By The Fireplace

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Installing An End Grain Flooring Inlay

by Steve | Nov 25, 2019 | end grain flooring, Flooring, Poconos, Rustic

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Creating an end grain flooring inlay was something I was looking forward to for months. We installed plywood wide plank flooring in the dining room and kitchen earlier this year and the living room was next on the list. Here’s a post with details on what we did with the living room floor.

The flooring in the dining room and living room were going to be laid in different directions and a regular threshold separating the two spaces was going to be – well pretty boring.

While initially doing my Pinterest research on flooring, I came across pins with different floor designs created using wood slices.

That gave me the idea of doing an end grain flooring as an inlay. It was the perfect solution!

I couldn’t wait to try this project.

What Is End Grain Flooring?

The Layout

Cutting The Wood Slices

Drying The Wood Slices

Cutting The Inlay into The Floor Boards

Placing The Wood Slices

Mixing The Sawdust Grout

Applying The Grout

Sanding The End Grain Flooring

Adding The Polyurathane Finish