Expand Your Garden through Propagation

On many occasions it’s been absolutely necessary for me to head to the closest big box hardware store or local garden centre to buy gardening supplies, tools, seeds, plants, pots and soil and compost. But at the same time I have definitely found it has become slightly easier as I have become more knowledgeable about gardening. I don’t need to rely on the stores for all my gardening needs especially when it comes to growing plants and neither do you.

It's entirely possible to grow many of our favourite edible plants and never have to buy them again. Instead we can continue to grow them year after year through a few methods. To do this we can choose to grow and propagate new plants from cuttings, runners, rhizomes, division and from suckers. We can also let some plants go to flower and save the seeds for future use.

Part of my mission in life and the whole point I started Soulfully Green is to live more sustainably and cut down on waste, minimise my exposure to consumerism and compost and grow food. I believe that gardening has allowed me to do all of these things and growing many plants from cuttings now and in the future will allow me to grow more food, reduce my reliance on outside sources, reduce my consumption, especially of plastics in the form of single use plastic pots and bags of soil, save lots of money and allow me to share my knowledge and the gift of plants to my family and friends.

vegetables

Common examples of vegetables you can continuously grow through various methods of propagation include:

Tomatoes

Trim off the suckers growing on your tomato plants, place them in a jar of water until roots appear and plant in small pots until they are ready to be planted into your veggie beds. This is an easy and free way to grow more tomatoes. It’s also important to collect some of the seeds so that you can continue to grow tomatoes in the future.

Sweet potato

Sweet potatoes grow slips and these can be planted out into your gardens. As sweet potato plants grow they spread rapidly covering the ground, making for an excellent ground cover. As it spreads it roots and eventually produces sweet potatoes. You can take cuttings from this sprawling vine and move to other parts of the garden and continue to grow sweet potato vines. Sweet potato leaves are also edible and can be used as a spinach alternative.

Potatoes

Potatoes are grown from seed potatoes, bury them deep and let them grow. When the plant dies back it is time to harvest the potatoes. Save some of your potatoes so you can regrow them again next season.

Garlic

Growing garlic is as simple as burying garlic cloves. Simply plant several of the largest cloves in the ground and repeat the same process every year.

Warrigal Greens

Warrigal Greens can be grown from cuttings. Place cuttings into a jar of water and once roots form plant into pots or into raised veggie beds. You can also collect seeds and sow in spring and summer.

Herbs and spices

Lemongrass

Lemongrass propagates easily in water. Place stalks in a jar of water and wait a few weeks before planting out. You can also divide lemongrass up and plant directly into the ground in your desired spots.

Mint

Mint is known to be extremely aggressive in the garden, often outcompeting other plants and completely taking over so it is best to only grow in pots. Mint can be propagated from runners and cuttings. Runners can be cut off and placed in pots. Cuttings can be placed in jars of water until they develop roots, then planted out.

Rosemary

Rosemary can grow very quickly and can become way too large and bushy so it often needs to be pruned. Many of these prunings can be propagated. Take 15cm long cuttings of fresh green shoots and remove the lower leaves. Dip the ends in a rooting hormone or honey and plant into pots with a high quality potting mix. They should root within a few weeks.

Basil

Basil is one of the easiest herbs to regrow on this list. Basil can be propagated from cuttings and left to root in a jar of water. Plant into pots filled with potting mix once roots are developed.

I could go on forever with herbs because most can be grown from cuttings. Some other herbs you can duplicate from cuttings include sage, lemon balm, lemon verbena, marjoram, thyme and tarragon.

Ginger and turmeric

Both ginger and turmeric grow from underground rhizomes. These rhizomes are easily broken up and scattered in to all corners of the garden including in to fairly small sized pots.

Fruits

Strawberries

Strawberries are notorious for sending out runners, these runners can be potted and moved to other parts of the garden. Strawberries also tend to split and form new crowns. These plants can then be divided up and planted in a new position.

Bananas

Bananas produce suckers and these suckers can be severed from the mother plant to grow new banana plants.

Dragon fruit

Taking dragon fruit cuttings is really simple. Just cut a section of the dragon fruit off and plant the right way up in a small pot of potting mix and tie some string or tape around a small stake or stick to keep it upright. In a few weeks you will see new buds growing and it can be transplanted into a bigger pot or directly in the ground.

Mulberry

For mulberry cuttings take pencil thickness cuttings about 20-30 cm long. Place in pots and wait. The success of mulberry cuttings can be hit and miss and can take quite a long time to show any proof of success.

Figs

Figs can be propagated similarly to the mulberry and can also be hit and miss. Take cuttings about 20-30 cm long and dip in rooting hormone and place in small pots filled with well draining soil. If successful they should be ready for planting within a few months.

Flowers

Lavender

Propagating lavender from cuttings is similar to rosemary. Take 10cm cuttings, remove lower leaves and dip into rooting hormone and plant in small pot of potting mix and wait.

Nasturtium

Nasturtiums can easily be propagated, take 20cm long cuttings and place directly in the place you want them, they do really well in pots and especially in hanging pots or draping over raised beds. Save seed pods and plant them in other places to continue growing nasturtiums forever.

Seed saving

I briefly mentioned it with a few of the plants listed above but saving seeds and starting our own seed bank is really important. Not only does saving seeds allow you to grow plants year after year, it frees us from having to spend money each season for seeds, allows you to be in complete control of the inputs and be fully independent. Seed saving is a great way to improve your self-sufficiency and resilience and the seeds saved can be shared with your community, neighbours, family and friends. Collecting your own seeds and sharing them with other locals is also beneficial because it means you can continue to grow fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers with traits that have adapted to your local conditions and climate.