: Grow Avocado and Sweet Potato Trees

Slice a ripe avocado in half. Carefully remove the large pit inside and grasp tightly in one hand (it may be slippery!). With your other hand stick three or four toothpicks equally spaced apart around the middle of the pit.

Put it in a glass or jar of water. Make sure you submerge the wider half of the pit in the water. Check each day to make sure that the water doesn’t evaporate. You can place two different pits in separate containers and see which one begins to sprout first.

A small avocado tree can survive in water for quite a long time because the pit contains enough nutrients to help the tree get started in its new life. Eventually though you may want to transfer it to a large planter with earth inside.

Potato or sweet potato bushes are also easy to grow in an indoor winter garden on a warm kitchen windowsill. Stick about three to four toothpicks around the middle of the spud and put it in a glass or jar of water. Just like with the avocado — make sure that the water in the container doesn’t evaporate.

Yam and potato “bushes” can grow for a very long time in the corner of a kitchen counter or windowsill. These also can be transplanted into the earth outside when it is spring and warm again. You may even find yourself harvesting potatoes and yams by autumn!