HOUSTON—Lots of people are Saving Cents by gardening these days, but it takes a lot of digging to start one.  However, there is another way that requires no digging.  Here are the steps according to master gardener Betty Heacker, who owns Wabash Antiques and Feed:

Pick a sunny patch in your yard and cut away the grass—scrape it off if you have to after cutting it low.

Enclose the patch in a box with 8-inch high sides. Use wood—scrap wood is fine.

Line the box with about four layers of newspapers.

Fill the box with good quality dirt, which is not cheap, but it’s a one-time purchase.

Make rows and plant seeds on top. Water well and let dry out a bit before re-watering.

Put mulch on the sides of the rows to prevent weeds from germinating, but do not cover the tops where you planted seeds.

Be sure to feed your plants or fruit trees with good fertilizer.

“Plants are no different from athletes in a sense that if you’ve ever known anyone who was a serious athlete, they were very careful about what they ate,” said Heacker. “Well, the same is true with a plant. You give it good dirt and you feed it well, it’s going to do well for you.” 

The garden supply store can tell you the best fertilizers and how and when to use them.

After you have grown a crop, you need to pull the plant out by the root once it is done producing, said Russell Johnson, an expert gardener at Wabash.  On the seed packet it will tell you the number of days from the time you plant seeds until your plant produces, he said.  Once the plant stops producing food, pull it up by the root, Johnson said.

“Right now everyone is having trouble with their tomatoes because it’s so hot,” Johnson said.  

Tomatoes don’t like to grow when nighttime temperatures are too warm, he said.  But you can still keep the plants in the ground, because later it will bloom and produce. You can also opt to pull up the plants you have now, which are spring tomatoes, and start over in a few weeks by planting fall tomatoes, Johnson.  Just know that fall tomatoes require some shade, Johnson said.

Another option is to start planting tomatoes now in a container indoors where it’s cooler and transfer them later to the ground.  If you do this, Johnson said remember to plant the tomato plant deeply—up to the first set of leaves—when you transfer it to the ground. Once these plants start producing tomatoes, they will do so all the way until the first frost of winter, Johnson said.