Dr. Kate Shoulders says that the amount of power you use in your home will determine the size of the solar power energy system you’ll need. In this video she explains how to calculate the size of the system you’ll need.

RISON – Raised bed gardening has become one of the most popular trends in home gardening over the past few years.
Les Walz, staff chair for the Cleveland County Cooperative Extension Office at Rison, said raised bed gardens have some advantages over conventional gardens because that they don’t require a lot of space, it’s much easier to improve and control the soil, and the beds don’t require as much work once they are completed.
Raised beds are an ideal backyard addition for the backyard homesteader.
Square Foot Gardening
One other factor behind the explosive interest in raised bed gardening is the book Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. His philosophy is to raise vegetables in small raised beds filled with a super-charged soil mixture that can nourish several plants in a small space, hence the name “square foot gardening.”
Bartholomew’s concept is based on using 4 foot by 4 foot wood-framed boxes that are 6 to 8 inches deep. The boxes are placed in a sunny area on top of landscape fabric to protect the garden bed from grass, weeds and other vegetation beneath it.
Once the frames for the raised bed boxes are complete, they are then filled with  “Mel’s Mix,” a special soil mixture that Bartholomew promotes in his book.  The recipe is rather simple: 1/3rd compost mixture, 1/3rd peat moss and 1/3rd coarse vermiculite.
The kicker to his recipe is the compost component – Bartholomew recommends the compost contain at least four or five types of compost mixed together. The reason, he contends, is that each type of compost has it owns strengths as far as mineral content is concerned, and by having a variety of composts, the soil will have a better balance of all the minerals needed for most types of plant.
Walz is implementing the Square Foot strategy in the Rison Community Garden, which is located at the Pioneer Village in Rison. While the soil being used in the beds at the community garden is not made using “Mel’s Mixture,” it is a “super soil” that consists of a mixture of top soil and compost.
The community garden started off with 10 raised beds, each measuring 4 foot wide and 8 foot long and 10 inches deep. The bed frames are built from cypress lumber. Another 10 beds will be added to the garden bringing the overall total to 20 beds.
Walz has kept four of the beds to use as “experiment stations” of sorts to test different growing strategies using raised beds.
One experiment Walz currently has underway is growing the same variety of strawberries in raised beds using two different methods: one bed is open to the elements while the other  is covered by a low tunnel. The strawberries were planted late last fall and have survived through single digit temperatures this winter. Walz said the covered strawberries appear to be about a week ahead of the uncovered berries.
Another experiment he just started is growing potatoes in tires. With this method, an old tire is filled with the soil and the potatoes are placed inside. As the potatoes begin to grow, a second tire is added and more soil is added. That process continues until the potatoes are ready to harvest.
Walz is experimenting with different types of soils as well as different placement of the seed potatoes inside the tires. He is using red potatoes and Yukon Gold potatoes in the experiment.
Irrigation Systems

In addition to the crop experiments, Walz is also experimenting with different irrigation systems for raised beds.
Last summer, he installed a do-it-yourself irrigation system built from 3/4-inch PVC pipe. In essence, the system consists of two parts: a trunk line and irrigation or water lines.
The trunk line has a fitting that allows it to be connected to a water hose. The trunk line then supplies water to the irrigation lines, which are simply pieces of PVC pipe with holes drilled in them.
Walz said one of the benefits of building your own system is that you can drill the holes exactly where you want the water to go. For instance, if your plants are 18 inches apart, you can drills the watering holes 18 inches apart so the water goes directly to each plant.
He recommended that the holes be no larger than about 3/8ths of an inch in diameter. The holes should be drilled on both sides of the pipe so one piece of pipe can be placed between two rows to provide irrigation for both sides. Some people drill the holes at a slight angle so the pipe can be turned up for a sprinkler system or turned down for a soaker system.
Walz noted that he does not glue any of the pieces together – they are simply joined together. By leaving them dry fitted, he said the water lines can be easily moved or adjusted.
Another new irrigation system that is being tried this year is a “wicking bed.”  This method works on the same principle as those plant pots that have the water trough attached to the bottom.
Wicking beds are most popular in dry, arid regions of the world where water is a precious resource and they want to get as much use of their water as the can.
The system that is being tried at the Rison Community Garden uses a box frame built from 2×6’s lined with a water proof barrier. That box is then filled with gravel to provide a holding cavity for the water and a piece of PVC pipe with holes drilled in it is placed on top the gravel bed. An an elbow joint is attached to one end of the pipe and another piece of PVC is attached to it. This piece will be pointed up and will protrude through the top of the soil as a means for filling the gravel bed beneath the soil.An overflow outlet is put at the top of the gravel bed to make sure the garden bed is not flooded.
Once the gravel, watering line are overflow outlet are in place, all of it is then covered with a landscape fabric and the garden soil is put on top of that. This barrier is put in place to prevent the bedding soil from washing down and filling the gravel bed.
Tunnel Construction

Raised beds are lends themselves as easy-to-construct “low tunnel” systems. This tunnel system can serve as a frame work for a cold frame and/or help protect your crops from pests.
The system being used at the Rison Community Garden uses 10-foot sticks of 1/2-inch PVC that are  arched over and the ends are put on pieces of rebar that have been driven into the ground. The “ribs” of the frame a placed about four feet apart.
For added strength and protection, a 10-foot length of  four-foot 2×4 welded wire fencing is draped over the PVC framework. The ends of the tunnel can then be covered with a plastic bird or animal needing to help keep the deer, rabbits and other pests out of the garden. The welded wire also provides a great support system when a clear plastic barrier is put over the bed for a cold frame or for a shade cloth to raise lettuce, spinach and other shade-loving crops.
The fencing system being used at the Rison Community Garden is not attached directly to the PVC ribs that support it. Instead, a piece of PVC pipe is threaded through the bottom row of fence openings to create a handle of sorts. This process is completed on each side. The handle makes it easy to slide the protective fencing up and down so you can have access to your garden. The handle can then be secured to the ground or the side of the raised bed to make sure it doesn’t blow off.

Dr. Kate Shoulders of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville said the first step to achieving energy independence is to assess how much energy your home is already using.
By making your home as energy efficient as possible on the front end, Shoulders said you can save a lot of money on the back end since the system you install won’t have to be as big.
“You need to consciously go throughout your house and look at how you’re using energy,” she said.
Here are some things to consider as you begin to make the move toward energy independence:

• Reduce “phantom power” loads. Even though the picture on your big screen television might be turned off, Shoulders said it’s still using energy because the TV is constantly searching for the remote. That’s a classic example of what Shoulders calls “phantom power,” also called “vampire power” or “standby power.” Phantom power refers to the power that electronic devices continue to use power even though they are turned off. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory website state that almost any product with an external power supply, remote control, continuous display (including an LED), or charges batteries will draw power continuously, even when the device itself is turned off. The Discovery Channel once measured how much power a flat screen TV was using while it was turned off. The total came to about $60 per year! Shoulders said one of the best ways to reduce the phantom loads in your home is put devices on a power strip so the power to the device can be completely cut off .
• Utilize passive solar energy.  “Passive solar” refers to taking advantage of heat from the sun without using any devices. This can be achieved by simply having south-facing windows in your home. As the sun takes a lower trek across the sky during the winter months, that bright sunshine coming through a south-facing window can have the same effect on the inside of your home as it does on the inside of your car during the summer. Since its  not practical to change the orientation of your home, Shoulders said this option is usually for those who are building a home. She said she knows of some people who have placed solar panels over their south-facing windows to serve as a awning during the summer. Since the sun crosses the sky at a higher angle during the summer, the solar panel captures the sunlight and shades the window below to help cool the inside of the house.

• Insulation and weatherproofing. The “tighter” your house is, the  more energy efficient it will be. Shoulders said this means adding insulation where you can and sealing up any leaks you might find in your home.
• Be wise with the way you use energy. Simply consider ways to save energy during your regular routine. For example, don’t turn on the oven during the hottest part of the day only to have to crank up the air conditioner to keep the house cool. Instead of putting the clothes in the dryer every time, put them on a clothes line instead.
• Use solar-powered devices to help cut down on your power use. Shoulders said there are ways you can use solar power around your home without having to invest in a whole-house system. For example, she said installing a solar-powered fan in your attic can removed hot air and make your house to easier to cool. She said some people also use solar-powered water heaters to reduce their power bills.

Dr. Kate Shoulders, assistant professor in the Agriculture Education, Communications and Technology Department at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville says not all forms of renewable energies are created equal.

One of Shoulders’ primary duties is to see which forms of  renewable energy (solar, wind and hydro) work best in Arkansas. To accomplish that goal, she started the Solar Energy Analysis Station at the UA farm in Fayetteville. Shoulders  uses the station to test practical ways renewable energy can be used in agriculture or a homestead.

Shoulders is quick to say that renewable energy is not necessarily the right fit for everyone, and some forms of renewable energy work better than others due to location, climate, economic feasiblity and other factors.

Wind is not a Good Option

While Arkansas is home to some companies that manufacture the gigantic wind turbines used for commercial wind power generation, Shoulders said wind is not a practical option in the Natural State.

There is a wind turbine set up at the analysis station in Fayetteville, but Shoulders said the primary reason it’s there is to show how “inefficient” wind-power is for Arkansas.

Shoulders said there are three primary reasons why wind power is not a very efficient option for renewable energy in Arkansas:

• First, turbine systems are designed primarily for constant West Coast winds that often blow close to the ground. In Arkansas, she said the turbine has to be elevated, which adds to the expense, and the wind is not very consistent here at all.
•  Second, she said turbine systems have several moving parts, which require more maintenance and expense, especially over the long term.
• Third, Shoulders said there are some unexpected regulations that can influence where you can put wind turbines. For example, she said twind turbines have proven to be very detrimental to the bat population. As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency has placed restrictions on using wind turbines in the flight patterns of bats.

“Wind is not as useful for Arkansas as solar,” Shoulders said.

Solar is Best Option in Arkansas

Shoulders said they are using solar energy in both “on grid” and “off grid” applications at the university farm.

“On grid” refers to using a form of renewable energy as a secondary source of power in addition to the electricity provided by a public utility. “Off grid” refers to using renewable energy as the sole source of power for a structure.

In on-grid applications at the Energy Analysis Station in Fayetteville, Shoulders said they have a 1 kilowatt solar generator to support power for a shop/classroom at the university farm. That on-grid system also helps power a micro-invertor that measures how much energy each cell in a solar panel is producing over any five-minute time frame. Shoulders said that data allows them and the public to see how well the solar panels are working under varying conditions.

To demonstration an off-grid application for solar power, Shoulders said they set up set up two water troughs in the middle of a pasture equipped with a water pump that  operates solely off a couple for solar panels connected to the pump. She noted that the system does not have a battery storage system – all the power to operate the water pump comes strictly from the solar panels themselves.

Shoulders said the intent of the solar-powered water trough demonstration is to show ranchers that they can deliver water to remote parts of their pasture without having to haul it. The pumps are using a 250-watt solar panel without any battery back-up. She said any time you can avoid having a battery back-up system, it makes the overall system much more cost efficient.

Shoulders said other practical off-grid applications for solar power without having to have a battery back-up system would include solar panels that could be used for portable charging stations for rechargeable tools at remote locations, solar water heaters, electronic gates and recreational uses for RVs, boats or camping.

She also noted that not all solar panels are created equal. While the price of the panels have come down in recent years, she said the power-generating silicon in some panels is superior to the silicon in others. Shoulders recommended checking out the efficiency of a panel before buying it.

Micro-Hydro System

Shoulders said the most efficient and affordable source of renewable energy is also the least available: micro-hydro.

She described the micro-hydro system as simply a miniature version of a hydro-electric power plant where a constant flow of water helps turn  a generator that produces electricity.

Since that stream flows constantly, Shoulders said the hydro generator can produce power around the clock regardless of the weather conditions. That makes it much more efficient than solar or wind power because both of those can be affected by the elements.

She said micro-hydro systems can be produce electricity with as little as 100 gallons of water going over a five-foot dropoff or five gallons of water going over a 100-foot dropoff.

While it is the most efficient and affordable system, Shoulders said not everyone has a stream that meets the flow requirements. However, if a person does have a flowing stream on their property, it would be the best option for a renewable energy source.