Be "Green" with Ease: The Gardener's Green Shed Shows You How!

There’s a lot of talk about living “green” and creating “sustainable” systems, but who has the time or resources to actually make these principles part of everyday life?

The newest demonstration area at The North Carolina Arboretum shows just how easy it is to make small changes that have a big impact. Located just outside of the Baker Exhibit Center, the Gardener’s Green Shed is designed to show how an existing shed or small building can be retrofitted with energy-efficient technology that can make outdoor activities easier, less expensive, and fun-filled.

The shed is equipped with two rain barrels that collect water from one side of the roof and have the capacity to store more than 100 gallons of rain water – great for watering ornamental container gardens. Rain water from the opposite side of the roof collects in a 365-gallon cistern that holds enough water to fill seven bathtubs.

A solar panel on the top of the shed provides sufficient energy to keep a large battery charged as well as power a light and a 12-volt outlet inside, which is enough to charge portable tools, lanterns, or even a laptop computer. No overhead or underground wiring is needed.

Visitors – especially children (and children at heart) – admire the shed’s down-home portable water feature. A large wheelbarrow is filled with water and submerged water plants. A small solar panel mounted to the handle runs a marine-grade pump that sends a jet of water up into the air. As long as the sun shines on the panel the fountain of water spurts out, causing giggles and laughter. Stand in front of the solar panel and block the sun – the fountain stops, a very real demonstration of the power of the sun.

The ideas that the shed represents are communicated in three different ways: by demonstrating how the technology works at the shed itself, through print brochures available for pick-up at the shed this summer, and through videos on the Arboretum’s Web site and its nonprofit YouTube channel. These two- to four-minute videos feature Arboretum staff showing off the Green Shed’s features.