Landscaping
Saturday, August 20, 2016 An advertising feature of The Topeka Capital-Journal
Turning a yard into an oasis, page 6
n Jamie Kidd on fixing a ‘broken’ lawn, page 2 n Remodeling: Walk-in showers vs. tubs, page 3 n Messy homes increase stress, page 5 n Moss offers year-round green, page 7
homes.cjonline.com trish williams/special to THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
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Killing weeds, overseeding help fix ‘broken’ lawns “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” At what point do you determine your lawn is “broke” and needs “fixing”? There is a general rule of thumb that if 50 percent of the lawn is in good condition, then work on improving it by killing weeds and overseeding with Kansas State University-recommended turf grass seed. If less than 50 percent is in good condition, it may be time to fix what’s broken. Fixing your lawn will take serious commitment. Timing is critical, and all actions shouldn’t be attempted in one weekend. A successful new lawn requires careful planning and frequent attention until it’s established, but the results should be well worth the effort. September is the best time to seed or overseed a lawn. The soil is warm and seeds germinate very quickly, allowing time for good root development before winter. Plus, there is less weed competition than in the spring. Oct. 15 is generally considered the last day for planting a lawn in the fall. In the past, a popular seed mix was K-31. While it was very hardy, it had the appearance of pasture grasses and an unacceptable level of weed and other seed. A much better choice for our area is a tall fescue blend. Find these at your local nurseries and garden stores. The blends use K-State recommendations for varieties that grow best in our area. Be careful when buying pre-packaged blends from large convenience stores. They often have an unacceptable level of weed and other seed. If you try to save money on seed,
Jamie KiDD
jamiehan@ksu.edu
you’ll be spending it on weed killer later and still not have a quality lawn.
Steps to renovate
n Take a soil test. This will determine if any essential nutrients are deficient. Go to www. shawnee.k-state.edu/lawngarden/soil-testing.html for directions for the test. n Kill existing vegetation. If you are overseeding, use Trimec, Weed-Out, Weed-B-Gon or Weed-B-Gon Max plus crabgrass killer and similar products to kill broadleaf weeds only. Use Roundup to kill all weeds and grass in the area chosen for renovation. Do this at least two weeks before planting new seed. Shortening this time will result in plants not being fully killed. Tilling too soon will cause perennials to regenerate. Wait one month if overseeding. n Grade soil surface so it drains water away from the house and blends into the surrounding terrain. Avoid adding or removing soil around trees. Remove any dead plant material. n Amend soil. Add compost and fertilizer as recommended by the soil test. Till 10 to 12 inches deep, or as deep as possible. This should be done several weeks before planting, allowing time for soil to settle. Avoid tilling inside the drip-line of trees. The small feeder roots will be
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
n Chad Bullock, of Premier Farm and Home Supply, will talk about weed problems and how best to spend your time and money combating them during “Fall Weed Control,” a presentation coordinated by the Shawnee County Extension Master Gardeners, at 7 p.m. Sept. 8 at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, 1515 S.W. 10th Ave. Fall is the time to control many of the problem weeds that pop up in lawns each spring. n “Sassy Succulents,” a hands-on workshop, will be from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Sept. 7 at the Shawnee County Extension Office, 1740 S.W. Western Ave. Cost: $10 for materials. Sign up and pay at the Extension office before Sept. 2. The class will discuss simple tips and tricks on watering, propagating and growing healthy plants and offer supervised time to build a hands-on, take-home succulent container. damaged. Avoid overtilling that results in the soil being beaten to the consistency of flour. n Hand rake for the final phase, making it smooth to mow or walk on. n Sow seed at the recommended rate. Tall fescue blends should be seeded at 6 to 8 pounds per 1,000 square foot. A gravity-flow spreader that drops the seed between the wheels is the most accurate method, but a rotary spreader is faster. Sow half the total amount of seed in one direction and the other half at a right angle to the first. Use half the amount
KIDD continues on 7
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Removing only tub likely won’t affect home value By Angie Hicks Angie’s List
Dear Angie: How much will my home’s value decrease if I remove the only tub and replace it with a shower? It’s a three-bedroom, one-bath house currently valued at $95,000. When I sell the house, I plan to offer the buyer an allowance if they want to convert it back. — Robin, Pittsburgh, Pa. Dear Robin: You’ve asked the million-dollar question: How will your remodeling choices impact your home’s overall value? Bathrooms factor into real estate decisions in a major way, and the tub-to-shower debate is probably more common among homeowners than you might suspect. Builders say they’ve witnessed a decrease in the number of soaking or garden tubs they’re installing in new homes, in favor of large, walk-in showers. But at the end of the day, it’s your house, and
you should remodel it however you like. However, no homeowner wants to knowingly do something to his or her house that will decrease its value. At your price point, converting the home’s only bathtub into a shower shouldn’t decrease the value of your property. Today’s busy lifestyles don’t afford many people the luxury of spending an hour soaking in the tub. Most potential buyers would appreciate a recently remodeled, spacious shower with all the bells and whistles versus a tub they never get to use. There is one caveat to keep in mind — families with small children will likely prefer a house with a bathtub. Is your neighborhood comprised of mostly families? Or is it primarily full of young professionals, retirees, couples or singles? If it’s a desirable location for families, the lack of a tub might not necessarily be a deal breaker,
but be prepared for it to perhaps take a bit longer to sell. Which brings us to your plan of offering an allowance for a buyer to convert the shower back into a tub if they desire. While it’s a generous offer, don’t be so quick to show your hand. Save your offer for the negotiation table. You don’t want to market the house with the implication that something is substandard, when the next buyer might come along and be very happy with the bathroom the way it is. If you find, after some time passes, that the lack of a tub continues to be the one sticking point that buyers simply cannot get past, consult with your Realtor to determine if the allowance should be included in your overall marketing strategy to sell the house. Staff writer Staci Giordullo contributed to this report. Angie Hicks is founder of www. AngiesList.com, provider of consumer reviews and services.
frank espich
Builders say they’ve witnessed a decrease in the number of soaking or garden tubs they’re installing in new homes, in favor of large, walk-in showers. Not having a tub in your home likely won’t affect its value.
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Replacing vinyl siding damaged over the years is easy job By C. Dwight Barnett Tribune News Service
Q: Our home was built in the 1920s and is showing its age. Painting the home every 10 years is out of the question, so we decided to have vinyl siding installed. But after a few months, I noticed the siding was coming loose.
I called the contractor and found out the phone number is no longer in service. Can you advise me on what to do now? A: The original wood siding on your home is most likely poplar wood, which has dried over the years and has a tendency to split if a siding nail hits it in the wrong place.
Fortunately, each piece of loose vinyl siding can be removed without having to remove the entire wall. If the loose piece is in the middle of a wall, you don’t have to start at the top and remove all the siding. A contractor can use a special inexpensive tool to undo the locking lip at the bottom of each
panel to expose the loose areas. Where the wood siding is split, the vinyl can be reinstalled using special fasteners, or the split wood can be repaired and the vinyl siding’s fasteners can be relocated away from where the original wood is damaged. Vinyl siding is very easy to install once all the outside or inside corners, window trim
and soffits have been installed. Even if the entire wall is loose and has to be removed, it can be repaired in less than an eighthour day with a crew of two experienced workers. If you have a two-story home, it may take a little longer, but the original vinyl can, in most cases, be reused and you would have to pay for labor only.
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Research: Cluttered homes can add to stress These storage hacks can help coordinate the home By Sophie Miura Domaine
When it comes to our favorite part of beautifying a home, storage and organization rarely rank high. And rightly so. We often consider cleaning a chore, brushing it aside as an annoyance or time-zapping task to deal with later. But here’s the thing: Science suggests that your messy home is more than just an eyesore. Researchers from UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives and Families found women who live in a cluttered home have higher levels of cortisol, a stress-related hormone.
In other words, those strewn dirty clothes could take a serious toll on your health, as well as the look of your home. Convinced that it’s time to tidy up? Follow these timeless storage hacks to update your home — and bid stress bye-bye.
The kitchen
n Use paint to unify clutter. If you have open shelving in your kitchen, paint your walls the same color as your pottery. Your dishes and glassware will stand out less, making the shelving look organized. n Invest in matching canisters. Storing all of your dry goods in glass jars or other canisters is a
beautiful way to organize your pantry, and it instantly makes your shelves look cleaner. Be sure to stick to one jar style to master the look. n Make use of low storage. Keep your favorite cookbooks or your go-to appliances on a shelf just below your counters, rather than on the benchtop — they’ll be much more pleasing below eye level, but still easily accessible.
The playroom
n Arrange storage bins strategically. Place bookshelves and bins at ground level in playrooms, where they’ll be in little arms’ reach. It’ll encourage children
to help tidy as they go, so you don’t have to. n Display nostalgic items. Transform children’s books, toys and dolls into works of art by installing floating shelves on the walls to showcase them. Be sure to display the covers of your children’s nighttime books, rather than the spines. n Introduce rugs. Looking for a commitment-free way to introduce color and pattern into a kid’s room? Rugs are a great way to create a play area that’s easy to remove and clean.
The home office
n Choose a color theme. Purchase magazine files and desktop accessories in a single color. Having a cohesive shade can alleviate some of the visual
dissonance that inevitably comes with a desk full of paperwork, books and other odds and ends. n Disguise cables with artwork. Erin Swift, style director at One Kings Lane, says framed artwork can be a great way to cover unsightly computer cords in a workspace. Swift layers artwork against a wall to cover electricity outlets and beautify an otherwise banal space. n Create a digital filing system. Sometimes, hard copies are necessary, but the vast majority of loose paperwork can be kept in digital form on an external hard drive. Set aside a few hours to scan documents, and recycle the strewn papers when you’re done.
The closet
n Create a closet code. Follow the organizationobsessed Khloe Kardashian and arrange every item in your closet by color and type. n Invest in one hanger style. Ditch the dry cleaner’s wire hangers and opt for wooden or felt “huggable” hangers, which not only prevent snags and tears but are also more visually pleasing. n Alter shelves to fit shoes and accessories. Model Tyra Banks worked with Lisa Adams, CEO of L.A. Closet Design, to create a wardrobe with perfectly spaced shelves to fit her shoes and accessories. If your closet shelves are adjustable, update their positions so that shoes and boxes fit snugly.
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Family creates oasis in Topeka backyard Landscape includes a mixture of textures, foliage and colors By Dianne Lawson Special to The Capital-Journal
When Elizabeth Kresie was growing up, her friends called a pergola in her parents’ yard “the oasis.” The pergola, which still stands, is a horizontal trellis supported by columns. It is raised off the ground, and to enter it, people have to ascend four steps. Nestled in plantings, it’s a cozy-feeling place to sit and relax. Large pots holding hydrangeas and hostas sit in the four corners. Lighting under nearby Japanese maples illuminate the area at night. The pergola, however, isn’t the only “oasis” in the yard. Elizabeth’s parents, physicians Debbie and Randy Kresie, bought their house in 1990. With a large and deep yard, they were able to incorporate many features. Debbie’s brother, Dwight Field, has a landscape business in Topeka and designed the pergola, as well as many other areas of the yard. When the Kresies bought their home, the yard was flat. Field had a vision of what the yard could be, which included raised beds and a musthave underground sprinkling system. “I like to incorporate structures in a garden,” Field said. “The bridge and the pergola anchor it.” When designing yards, he uses a mixture of textures, foliage and colors. He likes year-around interests in a yard, so he includes plants with color for each season and says
evergreens are important in a garden. The first change made to the yard after the Kresies moved in was the creation of a berm in the front yard. “It was to make use of empty space and to set the house off,” Field said. Next to the pergola is a bridge over water. “The two grandkids like to look at the water and are fascinated by the bridge aspect,” Debbie said. The fountain spouting water into the pond came from an old building. “My husband’s favorite thing is the noise of the waterfall of the pond. He leaves the window open at night to hear,” she said. In later years, Topeka landscape designer Anne Palmer helped with the replacement and redoing of beds. In the backyard is a playhouse and sandbox that Palmer designed. Elizabeth designed the sandbox cover, which included images of her dog. The Kresies also bought a large, two-story playhouse for the backyard area. “We had a two-car, flat-top garage and made it into a carriage house,” Debbie said. The carriage house has a three-car garage and an area where guests can stay and have privacy. “I laid out the carriage house at an angle, which allowed room for the pool and more driveway space,” Field said. The last phase was putting in the swimming pool and fence to keep people out of the pool. “My brother designed the pool and the retain-
OASIS continues on 8
photographs by trish williams/special to THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
The pergola in Debbie and Randy Kresie’s yard — a horizontal trellis supported by columns — is an oasis of calm and beauty. The pergola is raised off the ground and people have to ascend four steps to enter it.
Top: In the backyard is a playhouse and sandbox designed by Topeka landscape designer Anne Palmer. Left: Flowers and potted plants arranged by the Kresies’ daughter, Elizabeth, adorn the front porch of the home.
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Moss adds shape, texture to garden By Linda Lombardi The Associated Press
J. Paul Moore, who owned a garden center in Tennessee for more than 30 years, can’t count the number of times people asked him how to kill moss. He and other experts, however, say moss deserves more respect, as a versatile and beautiful addition to any garden. “It’s stunning in the winter when everything else is dormant and dull. It’s like a little emerald island,” says Moore, who’s got an entire moss lawn. “It changes with atmospheric conditions — it’s ever-changing.” And it looks better than his grass lawn did in Nashville’s hot dry summers, he says. Moss provides a variety of shapes and textures, and can work in everything from a container to a whole lawn, like Moore’s. “Mosses offer year-round green,” says Annie Martin, author of “The Magical World of Moss Gardening” (Timber Press, 2016). Moss thrives in a surprising range of climates; Martin once harvested some moss off a hot tin roof in June and found it to be a species that also grows in Antarctica. Some lessons on how to garden with moss can be found in Japan, where it is more valued. Dale Sievert has created Japanese-style gardens at his home in Waukesha, Wis., and for public gardens in Wisconsin and Chicago. But this type of formal garden with great expanses of moss wasn’t actually what he found most interesting when he visited Japan. Rather, it was how often moss was used in private gardens along city streets, in front of businesses and homes — just a couple square feet in a planter, or the space between a sidewalk and a building.
The ground cover also grows in a range of climates, containers
DALE SIEVERT/THE associated press
Moss is a versatile plant to use in a garden, because it provides year-round green in everything from containers to a full lawn. “That’s how they garden with moss, in these little tiny spots,” he says.
Getting started
Sievert says start small. One possibility: Instead of using mulch, plant moss to cover the ground under a perennial that’s bare at the bottom and bigger on top. Or start even smaller: in a flowerpot. Sievert has about 300 containers planted with moss, where they thrive even in the Wisconsin winter. Another way to start is to encourage moss where it’s already growing in your yard. That’s what Moore did when he decided to give up trying to grow grass in an area where it refused to thrive. Within two or three
years, the moss had covered about 5,000 square feet. “The first thing people ask is, ‘Can you walk on it? What does it feel like on your bare feet?’ ” he says. “I say, ‘Take your shoes off!’ ” Although heavy traffic will wear it down, and you wouldn’t want kids or dogs roughhousing on it, moss actually likes to be walked on. If you want to encourage moss to spread, remove weeds and grass, provide moisture and keep it clear of debris; don’t let leaves and sticks pile up. You can also move it around to where you want it: Mosses don’t grow from seed, but they do spread from any part of the plant. “They can grow from a leaf or a stem or rhizoid,”
says Martin. “Just cut them up or tear them up.” You can also buy moss to plant. Martin sells many species online from her moss nursery. “I have mats that roll out like a green carpet,” she says. “They’re great for people who don’t have patience.”
No roots
Moss will go dormant if it’s not watered, but uses less water than most other garden plants because it has no roots. The root-like structures you see when you pull up a clump of moss are called rhizoids. “Their only purpose is to hold it to the surface,” says Martin. Because moss takes in water and nutrients through its
leaves, several light waterings are better than a long drench. This also means that planting is easy: You don’t need to dig holes or improve soil. “You can use nutrientpoor soil where nothing else will grow and do nothing to prep it in advance except clear the debris away,” Martin says. Another advantage: Moss doesn’t need fertilizer or pesticides. The same substances that keep moss from freezing in winter also taste bad to insects. But to its fans, moss’ best feature is its unique charm. “When you talk about moss to anybody, they smile. It’s like the plant equivalent of a teddy bear,” says Moore. “It conjures up elves in the forest.”
Kidd: Keep soil moist Continued from 2C of seed for overseeding. Seeding too lightly or poor seeding techniques will result in a thin, clumpy and weedy lawn. Heavy seeding results in the turf dying, because of overcrowding, poor rooting and disease problems. n Keep the soil continuously moist until grass is established. Once seeds germinate, they must not dry out or they will die. Water three times per day for 10 minutes for two weeks. Slowly back off the watering times. Don’t stop cold turkey and expect the grass to survive. Teach it to live. n Don’t use chemical control for broadleaf weeds from one month before planting until the new grass has been mowed three times. An exception is siduron, or Tupersan, a pre-emergence herbicide. n Mowing. A common mistake is to wait too long before mowing new grass. As soon as cool-season grasses reach a height of 3 inches, mow with a sharp blade set at a height of 2 inches. Regular mowing stimulates grass to spread rather than grow upright. n If a soil test isn’t performed, a lawn starter fertilizer can be applied according to package directions. Too much fertilizer can burn tender new grass. Don’t over-fertilize. Establishing a new lawn is a lot of work. If done well, you’ll save yourself time and money. Start with good seed and prepare well. The rewards will be well worth it. Next week’s article will cover overseeding when full renovation isn’t necessary. Jamie Kidd is a horticulturist with K-State Research and Extension in Shawnee County.
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Oasis: ‘I like to have a little garden therapy’ Continued from 6C ing wall around the pool,” Debbie said. “My favorite thing about the pool is the hemlock hanging over the pool.” Debbie is quick to give credit to the two landscape artists. While someone else mows the grass, she and Elizabeth do all the trimming of the yard. Because of its size and the large variety of plants, it is a high-maintenance yard. “Mom likes to trim the boxwoods by hand,” Elizabeth, a medical student at the University of Kansas Medical Center, said. “She uses hedge shears.” Elizabeth lives in Kansas City but travels to Topeka because “I like to have a little garden therapy.” “Our yard is an evolving project. Through the years, we’ve had to adjust,” Debbie said. “It took years and years to get it together. A part of gardening is editing.”
trish williams/special to THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
The Kresies’ grandchildren like to stand on the bridge in the yard and look into the pool of water below.
TIP OF THE WEEK
Did you know you could turn a long-handled tool into a measuring stick? Lay a longhandled garden tool, such as a hoe, on the ground, and next to it place a tape measure. Using a permanent marker, write inch and foot marks on the handle. When you need to space plants a certain distance apart — from just an inch to several feet — you’ll already have a measuring device in your hand. Source: Paul James, host of “Gardening by the Yard” on HGTV
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Service Directory
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