Join local singer-songwriter and gardener Suzan Bartels for a presentation on Hay Bale Gardening. Bartels is passionate about home gardening and began maintaining a hay bale garden when a health issue made traditional gardening inaccessible. Hay bale gardens are elevated for easier tending, cheaper than wooden raised beds, hold moisture and drain better; they provide you with fewer soil-borne diseases, cleaner vegetables, fewer weeds to deal with, an earlier start and a longer growing season, no need to till soil, an easy and reliable way to “container garden” and bigger harvests. Hay bales are preferred to straw bales because hay adds nutrients as it decomposes, so the gardener needs to add little or no amendments to nourish the plants. The class will cover the basics of gardening using hay bales. Attendees will learn how to build a hay bale garden from scratch, how to maintain the garden throughout the summer, where to purchase hay bales, and an overview of the benefits of hay bale gardening to both the gardener and the soil. Donations requested.