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Saturday, October 10, 2015 An Advertising Feature of The Topeka Capital-Journal

Jamie Hancock Garden Column – Understanding paint and choosing the right one for you – Gardening in harmony with nature – Open House Directory –

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The legend of Johnny Appleseed Understanding paint and choosing Jamie Hancock

jamiehan@ksu.edu

each fall wanting to know how to germinate the seeds and how long it would be before there would be a crop. I am sure that Johnny Appleseed did not know what we know today about growing apples from seed.

Let me begin with the statement,” apples are not true to seed”. This means that the seeds from that extremely delicious fruit you just ate will not produce a tree with that same apple. Here is why. It takes two different varieties of apple to create fruit.

The fruit produced will be what that tree is, but the seed will be a cross of two varieties and will produce a completely different tree and apple. There are over 80,000 varieties of apple including crabapples. You will not know which tree pollinated your tree. Therefore, the seeds in any given apple have the potential of being 1 of 80,000 other varieties.

So the question of the day is, “How do I get the same apple tree my grandfather has in his yard?” Grafting, vegetative reproduction, is the only way to generate the exact same tree. This means taking a small piece of bark with a bud and cambium tissues from the good tree and grafting it onto the root system of an existing tree. The developing tree will produce the exact same fruit even though it will have been pollinated by another variety of apple. It takes two apple trees of DIFFERENT varieties for pollination. The highest quality fruit is harvested by this cross-pollination. Make sure the varieties chosen have overlapping bloom times. Bees are the primary pollinator so be careful not to spray insecticides during bloom when honey bees will be present. Buy healthy 1-year-old trees 4 to 6 feet tall with good root systems. A small tree will transplant better than a large tree.

There is also much work to do pruning and training fruit trees that needs to be done in their first year. See Kansas State Research and Extension publication C631- Pruning Fruit Trees.

There are actually a few varieties that are self-pollinating and will produce true seed, but not very many. If you wish to grow apple trees check with your local nurseries and they can help you select the varieties that grow well here and help you select the secondary variety as well. These trees will already be grafted and ready to plant.

One of my favorite folk heroes is John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed. We have all heard the tales of him walking barefoot across America planting apple seeds everywhere he went. Well, the truth is, he planted apple seeds in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Illinois. He planted just ahead of the settlements moving west in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s.

John Chapman was not the wandering dreamer he is made out to be in legends.

Research reveals that he was a careful, organized businessman. He bought and sold tracts of land and developed thousands of productive apple tree orchards over a 50 year period. Chapman was born in Leominster, Massachusetts in 1774. He headed west to Ohio in 1792 with his father and half brother. Leaving them behind John began his solo trek in his early 20’s.

Chapman’s dream was to produce so many apples that no one would ever go hungry. He carried a leather bag filled with apple seeds he collected for free from cider mills. Legends had him planting along roadways and by the streams, but research suggests that he created numerous nurseries selecting the perfect planting spot, fencing it with fallen trees, bushes and vines, sowing seeds and returning at regular intervals to repair fence and tend the ground. He sold the trees or traded them for the simple needs he had just to make sure people would not go hungry.

The return trips Chapman would make to tend the trees let him bring news to the settlers. His favorite book was the Bible and he often preached a message to the settlers as well. John accumulated more cash than he needed and he didn’t care for banks. He relied instead on an elaborate system of burying his money. Chapman would rather give the trees away than have a family go without and be hungry.

Johnny Appleseed, as he had come to be known, made his last trip back to Ohio in Jamie Hancock is a horticulturist with Kansas State 1842 to live with his half brother. He died University Research and Extension in Shawnee County.

March 18, 1845 of pneumonia at the age of Note: The Shawnee County Extension Council will seventy-one while visiting a friend in Inbe holding a public election to elect new members. diana. He is buried in an unmarked grave All Shawnee County residents who are 18 or older near Fort Wayne. are invited to vote on October 13, 2015 from 7AM to There is always a lot of interest even to7PM. Contract the office for more information. (785) day in planting apple tree seeds. I get calls 232-0062

the right one for you

By Dustin Lemmon Special to The Capital-Journal

Before choosing your paint, be it exterior or interior, you should know what’s going into the can you’re buying at the store. Why? “You know the old adage, paint is paint; don’t believe it, it’s not true,” Bob Swafford, co-owner of ColorWorks Paint and Supply in Topeka, said.

Many ingredients go into a can of paint and they impact everything from how many feet you can cover with a single gallon to how long that paint is going to hold its finish on your walls.

There are four main ingredients to be aware of:  The binder: This is the resin, the substance that makes paint adhere to the wall.

The binder is typically oil or latex based. The binder is also important to sustaining the life of the paint.  The pigment: These are the powders, or in some cases, dyes, that give the paint its color.

They can be natural or artificial.  The solvent: This is the liquid that carries the paint and allows you to spread it evenly across surfaces.  Additives: Numerous additives can go into paint to improve its look and/or longevity.

So how do you put this knowledge to use?

The binder and solvent are important to consider when choosing between a cheap can of paint or one that will cost a little more, but cover more space. The more expensive can might end up being the more affordable choice, Swafford noted.

The pigment is important to think about when it comes to consistency. Stores like ColorWorks will be able to keep a record of the pigment used for your project, so if you need more paint you don’t have to sweat getting the right match.

“It’s important to get the same color of paint you used before,” he noted.

Quality The ingredients of the paint can also make a difference in its durability. Chris Rhodes, manager of Sherwin-Williams in Topeka, noted that paints with a higher quality finish contain more binders, which means normal household stains – say, a blot of ketchup that lands on the wall – won’t cause lasting marks.

Rhodes said if you were to look at a normal – more porous – coating of paint through a microscope you would see peaks and valleys in the surface and it’s those valleys where materials become lodged and create stains. The stain-resistant finish is smoother, allowing you to more easily wipe away the residue.

Swafford noted that if you don’t want to have to keep repainting walls, you need to invest some time in considering whether you

stock photo/metro creative connection

want a stronger, stain-resistant product.

“Improper planning and preparation” is a big problem, he said. “I always ask people, ‘How often do you want to do it?”

Color Deciding on the color – the pigment – for your bedroom or kitchen might be what’s causing you the most hesitation. Leslie Noller, general manager of Allied Paints in Topeka, said it helps when customers bring in a carpet sample or the sheets they want to match.

“It makes our job easier putting together colors for them,” she said.

If you’re really stuck, an employee of Allied Paints will stop by your house at no additional charge to help make a recommendation.

“If they don’t know what they want, we’ll come out and take a look,” Noller said, adding a home visit can also be helpful when recommending an exterior paint.

Many homeowners may not think about how the color they choose will look once paired with the neighboring homes around them. For example, a lavender color between two green homes might stand out more, Noller noted.

“One color can influence how another one appears,” Noller said.

Rhodes noted that many customers go with more neutral colors, such as beige or gray, simply to be sure it won’t clash with anything else.

Don’t rush Swafford said it’s important that you get the right advice before you start painting. Do your research and you won’t regret it.

“Take your time,” he said. “You don’t just wake up one morning and say, ‘I’m going to get paint today.’”

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Gardening in harmony with nature

By Dianne Lawson Special to The Capital-Journal

Ranae Cushing and her husband, T.J. Ciaffone, love nature and have created an oasis for themselves, as well as for butterflies, bees and birds. “We wanted to give it a country-garden feel. Cushing said. “We wanted it to be aesthetically pleasing and support nature.”

Beds of flowers and plants scattered around the yard give it a sense of peace and beauty. “On Sunday mornings it’s just wonderful to sit on the back porch and have a vision to focus on,” said Ciaffone.

They designed their yard so that it would need minimum maintenance and require minimum water. “We have no-mow zones,” Ciaffone said. “We took problem areas and made them into gardens so we wouldn’t have to mow.”

Beside many flower gardens, they also planted a vegetable garden that includes soybeans, cucumbers, kale, Swiss chard, tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce and beans.

To save vegetables through the winter, Cushing said, “I freeze everything, make V-8 juice and salsa.” Ciaffone pointed out

a row of spearmint that he called, “our Mojito garden.”

They have four plants of stevia. When it flowers, Cushing harvests it, puts it upside down to dry, then strips off the leaves. After pulverizing it by hand, she puts it in a big sieve to have powdered stevia. She uses it as a sweetener.

They have a large mulberry tree and use mulberries to make jam and smoothies.

They also have an apple tree. “It is dog heaven with the apples and mulberries,” Cushing said. “One of our dogs turns into a purple dog because he rolls around in the mulberries on the ground and loves to eat them.”

“I love to grow herbs,” Cushing said. She grows herbs to use medicinally as well as to use in her kitchen. She has rose geraniums that can be made into rose geranium oil to use as a facial toner or oil.

Speaking about her Echinacea plants, she said, “If I need it, I could harvest it for medicinal purposes.” She uses the root, so harvesting it would kill the plant.

A small part of their two acres of land is left unmown as a habitat for animals. The rest is welcoming for creatures to come

Trish Williams/Special to The Capital-Journal

Above: Front of Cushing and Ciaffone home. Below left: Cushing and Ciaffone vegetable garden. Below middle: Black swallowtail butterfly caterpillar. Below right: Monarch butterfly caterpillar. and visit. Not only did the couple plant flowers to enjoy themselves but to attract butterflies, bees and birds.

The yard contains milkweed, parsley, dill, fennel and three different kinds of milkweed to attract butterflies. In the midst of one patch for butterflies is a very small bowl of water for them. Along with butterflies, there are caterpillars, including monarch and black swallowtail. “I plant so there is always something blooming,” Cushing said. “When the bees, hummers

and butterflies come, there is something there to eat.”

They planted Russian sage for bees and usually have lots of bees there and on other flowers.

Their yard attracts blue jays, doves, cardinals, red-winged blackbirds, bluebirds and house finches, among others. One of

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Service Directory

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Gardens: Creating an every blooming natural habitat for wildlife feed off of their hummingbird feeder, the butterfly bush and many other flowers. the reasons they have such a big variety of Cushing said a reason she has so many birds in their yard, is that not only do they goldfinches is that they like variety, espehave specific bird feeders to attract differ- cially zinnias, sunflowers and hyssop. ent kinds of birds, but because they also The couple’s love of living in harmony have a large variety of plants that attract with nature is mirrored in their education birds. Hummingbirds love their yard and and experience. “I have a master’s degree several of them fly from bush to bush and in clinical and holistic health education

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from JFK University in Orinda, California, the only accredited university for holistic health,” Cushing said. She teaches first aid and CPR at Washburn University. She also is available as a health consultant for people and for pets. Ciaffone is an IT specialist for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs but previously worked in the environmental industry.

Trish Williams/Special to The Capital-Journal

Left to right: Cushing and Ciaffone garden with Marigolds. Bee on Russian sage.

Triangle garden.

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