I’m a gardening expert and here are three steps to growing your own peppers for free

Now that spring is just around the corner, it’s time to fill your garden with vegetables and plants.

You don’t have to travel all the way to the nearest gardener to get your vegetable garden going either; you can use leftovers from your refrigerator.

Bath-based gardening expert Michael Griffiths has used TikTok to share how you can prevent food waste and turn it into flowering plants.

Here, FEMAIL looks at the three steps you can take to turn pepper seeds from your fridge into thriving vegetables in your garden…

The gardening professional encouraged viewers to save the pepper seeds the next time they prepare a meal so they can grow more in their garden

1. REMOVE THE SEEDS

According to the gardening pro, the time to plant your pepper seeds is nigh — and you may already have them in your home.

Although you typically buy peppers at the grocery store for the purpose of preparing a meal such as fajitas, you can also use them to grow more peppers.

“Now it’s time to grow pepper plants and you can use the plants you have in your fridge,” Michael told his TikTok following of more than 200,000 people.

Instructing viewers to save the seeds, he said, “The next time you chop a pepper, scrape the seeds from the placenta and set them aside.”

2. CREATE A MINI GREEN HOUSE

Creating a mini greenhouse may sound like a complicated process, but in reality it is quite simple.

But once you’ve set your pepper seeds aside, it’s essential to create the best habitat for them to begin their journey.

To do this, according to the gardener, all you need to do is take a small plastic box, such as a take-out container, and pack it with moist compost.

After this, he advises viewers to scatter the pepper seeds in the ground before covering them with a little compost.

To complete the mini greenhouse, close the lid of the box and leave them in a warm and sunny spot in your home for a few weeks.

Before transferring the seedlings to a larger pot (pictured), green-fingered hopefuls should place the seeds in a plastic container along with soil and let them develop in a warm and sunny spot for a few weeks.

3. MOVE THEM TO A LARGER BOX

Once the seedlings have grown to about two or three inches tall, they are ready to be transplanted into larger pots of multi-purpose compost.

Michael planted about four seedlings per large black pot in his backyard.

If you do this, your vegetables won’t become ‘pot bound’ and will have plenty of room to grow freely Gardeners World.

The publication recommends starting to feed your vegetables with potassium-rich liquid feed, such as tomato fertilizer, as soon as flowers appear on the plant.

If the weather conditions are slightly drier, you can apply a gentle mist of lukewarm water to ensure better crop growth.

It is advisable to continue watering the plant during this process, but be careful not to pour too much water and drown the plant.

Once the peppers have reached the expected size and color, you should harvest them.