Gardening with Allen: Grow boxes are best for beginners starting a garden

Just drop the box on top of your lawn and fill it with three-way soil mix. It requires about 1 yard of mix to fill a 4-by-8 box. One yard of soil is equivalent to 14 2-cubic-foot bags of bagged soil mix. The soil mix will kill the lawn so you will not need to kill or remove the grass.

Three-way soil mix is available from several suppliers including full-service garden stores. You can pick it up with a truck or have it delivered. You could also combine it with an order of bark dust for a mulch in your yard to make the delivery cost more reasonable. Fill the box right to the top because it will settle some after watering.

Another advantage of the grow-box soil is that it is loose and well-drained so you can plant into it even when we have light rain. Our clay soils are very difficult to work when they are wet and sticky. You may need to wait a month if you are planting in the ground instead of a box. Improve ground soil by mixing in organic material such as bark dust, compost or peat moss.

Smaller containers

If you do not have room for a grow box, planter boxes, large nursery pots, tubs or other containers can be used to grow vegetables. Just be sure they have holes in the bottom so water can drain. Wire cages may be needed to support larger vegetables such as tomatoes. Bush or determinate type tomatoes are best for containers.

Planting methods

I recommend planting small seeds such as leaf lettuce, spinach, radish, carrot and onion in rectangles rather than single-file rows. A 6-by-12-inch rectangle of broadcast carrot seeds will yield as many carrots as a row 4- or 5-feet-long. I can plant a little patch of lettuce or beets between flowers or shrubs. Once the seeds sprout, you can thin them.

Leaf lettuce and spinach do not need to be thinned. Their tops can be snipped for salads within four to five weeks after sowing. They will grow back for repeated harvest. Lettuce and spinach will start to go to seed six to 10 weeks after planting, so save space for a second planting five to six weeks after the first one.

Peas and all of the root, leaf and flower-bud vegetables can be planted now. Wait until May to plant all fruiting vegetables except peas. Nursery plant starts of some vegetables are available now.

Starting seeds inside

Tomato and pepper seeds can be started inside now for planting outside in May. If you start some of your own seeds inside, place them near a south-facing window or use additional artificial light. Seeds sprout best at a temperature of 70 degrees. Electrically heated seed starting mats are available for less than $25.

Once seedlings develop four leaves, they can be placed outside in the daytime and brought inside at night. This combination of cool day temperatures and warm night temperatures causes plants to grow more compactly. Plants should be placed in the shade for the first two or three days and given full sun after that. Plants dry quickly outside and may need to be watered more than once per day.

Fertilization

I add some general purpose fertilizer — such as 16-16-16 — at the time I plant seeds or starts. Then I make a second application after about six weeks to vegetables such as tomatoes and squash. My favorite is Osmocote Flower & Vegetable fertilizer (15-15-15). This coated fertilizer is gradually released over a four- to six-week period and produces optimum uniform growth.

No-till gardening

Every time you add organic matter to the soil you are improving it. When I redid my front yard several years ago, I placed about 3 inches of bark dust on top of heavy clay soil and rototilled it in. Since that time, I have not needed to spade or till the soil again. Each year I add at least an inch of bark or other organic material to this area. The soil has become much like the grow box soil.

I recently planted some petunia plants in this area. It was easy for me to dig holes for each plant with a trowel.