Hay Bale Garden, Waist Height Raised Bed and more at the Orange County Great Park

John from http://www.growingyourgreens.com/ goes on another field trip to visit the Orange County Great Park to learn more about what's growing on at the Great Park. The Great Park was a former military base now partially converted to a great park. After watching this video you will learn more what's growing in their raised bed gardens, see their waist height raised bed garden and learn about the hay bale garden and more.



This video demonstrates many vegetables and herbs growing in various types of raised beds. Raised beds can make gardening easier because it breaks up the work into doable parts.

A raised bed that is 12" or even 16" high is nice so you can sit next to it or on the edge to plant and fill with mulch etc. The mulch is a key factor to gardening because it feeds the soil and helps build a healthy environment full of microorganisms, protects from hot and cold and temperature fluctuations, and helps to retain water, yet allows for drainage of too much water.

Raised beds built higher, around 3 feet high are good for those with physical limitations, and/or just a bad back.

Personally, I would not have paint on the structure of my raised beds anywhere near my soil. I have built raised beds mostly using redwood and even some Douglas fir which breaks downs much faster, but yet will last for years and is cheaper than redwood. One thing that will protect the exterior of the wooden raised beds is "used" cooking oil. It really works and looks good too. I have used it on a potting bench and the shingles of a tool shed. I don't bother putting it on my raised beds because they last so long anyway. In the Sacramento CA area redwood raised beds will last for a good 20 years usually.

Now, there are many synthetic materials on the market for building raised beds, which may be healthy or not in contact with your soil and the food you are going to eat. Any material should be investigated before using for this purpose.