Learn how to build a raised-bed garden box to make home gardening easier and more productive, when Kevin Genovese gives a demonstration at the Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on March 3, 2013. The event is on the museum’s monthly Free First Sunday, when all exhibits and events are open free to the public.

Genovese, Operations Director at the Agriculture Museum, will demonstrate the building skills needed to make a garden box, including cutting and attaching lumber. He will share information about rot-protection and provide instructions for attendees to take home.

Raised-bed garden boxes offer advantages to plants and to gardeners. Soil conditions and types can be adjusted as soil is being added and mixed in the beds. Since gardeners walk around the beds and not in them, soil compaction is reduced and drainage is improved. Water, fertilizer, compost and mulch can be applied with greater efficiency and less waste. Due to these optimal growing conditions, plants can be more closely spaced, and will provide more vegetables, fruits and flowers per square foot. And best of all, many gardening chores can be done while sitting on a garden seat next to the raised bed.

Genovese is Operations Director at the Agriculture Museum. He earned his B.A. in history from California State University Channel Islands in 2011.

The Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum is open 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is $4 adults, $3 seniors, $1 children 6-17, free for Museum of Ventura County members, and for children ages 5 and younger. Paid events include free admission to the galleries, and the first Sundays of every month are free general admission for the public. For more information go to www.venturamuseum.org or call the Agriculture Museum at 805-525-3100.