Green River Star -

Jennifer Edelmayer's lifelong dream to bring a community garden to Green River is coming true.

The Wild Sage Garden will be a community-based garden open to everyone. The Edelmayer family donated acreage for the community garden which is located west of the city in Jamestown.

"Everybody loves food," Edelmayer said.

She wanted to bring more awareness to the community about gaining access to healthier foods through agriculture. This year, they are using hay bales as their planters. Each hay bale is $20. It will then be soaked in a fertilizer for two weeks and prepared for planting. Edelmayer encourages participants to get their bales and plant before the summer solstice.

The garden will be introducing workshops, open to the public, throughout the summer about gardening and growing in the area. Participants include Sweetwater County Master Gardeners from the University of Wyoming.

Edelmayer, who just became a master gardener, started this garden as a way to introduce an innovative way of food production. She wants to urge the community to support more locally-grown produce. The hay bale process is low maintenance and helps keep a controlled environment that is easy for growing.

The hay bales planted by the group Saturday included salsa bales, herb bales, annual flower bales to encourage pollination and do-it-yourself bales.

The garden also had a compost demonstration on how to build fertilized soil. In the end, the group has 25 bales planted and ready to produce for the season. They hope to gain more support and be able to create a bigger garden next year.

Edelmayer will be keeping the community updated through the Wild Sage Garden Facebook group.