If you didn’t get around to pruning to shape that overgrown Japanese maple or clean out the congested clump of powdery-mildew plagued lilacs, you’re off the hook for now. Plants are redirecting their energy to get ready for winter and so should we. Pruning stimulates the growth of new branches and leaves, which is good in spring and early summer, but not now. Tender new growth wouldn’t have time to harden off before temperatures drop. There is a lot going on underground, with roots still growing, but above ground, woody plants are going through chemical changes that cause them to drop their leaves and go dormant for winter. With so much recent storm damage, of course there will be broken branches that need to be removed. But after basic cleanup, it’s time to put away the pruning saw and loppers until midwinter and turn to weeding.While we’ve been taking a break from spring’s gardening frenzy, weeds have been completing their life cycles by setting seeds. When I hear gobbling out back I know it’s crabgrass time. Wild turkeys love crabgrass seed. While I try to attract wildlife, all those big feet scratching around in my garden do a lot of damage, so I chase them away and start pulling weeds. Check out all those fuzzy seedheads, the sprays of crabgrass sneaking through the garden, the pink clusters of smartweed and the many low-profile green seeds of plants that slip under our radar. It’s time to pay attention to weeds and other plants that self-sow too enthusiastically. Eliminating seeds now will save much work next year. If seeds are very ripe or spring-loaded, seed will spill with the slightest handling. Plants like garlic mustard and dock, a big-leafed perennial with a deep tap root whose spikes of rust-colored seeds seem to be everywhere lately, are best snipped right over a big container. Digging tap-rooted plants out one by one is a chore, but at least you can prevent further seeding with one snip. Many weeds are annuals. Since they’re going to die anyway, if possible cut them rather than pulling. Pulling disturbs the soil, which promotes germination of seeds already in the soil. Keeping ground covered by plants or mulch goes a long way toward keeping weeds down. Cutting invasive barberry and burning bush euonymous now prevents birds from ingesting and spreading seeds. But don’t just send them through a chipper or even think about composting; that’s just planting them somewhere else. If you have too much material to put in household garbage, choose one spot to pile up problem plants and keep an eye on it — maybe cover it with an old rug or tarp so plants will rot rather than germinate. Then there are the seeds of plants we want to spread. Beautiful native woodland asters and goldenrods are beginning to bloom. They can be encouraged to spread by strewing their seed around once it is ripe, so see where they are now and collect a bit of seed later. Cardinal flower and its cousin, great blue lobelia, is blooming in my wet garden now and big white puffs of white snakeroot (Eupatorium rugosum) are in the woodland garden. After they set seed and start to fall apart I cut flower stems and bash them around where I’d like more plants. Other welcome self-seeders, like brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba), stand up to winter and feed the birds, always dropping enough seeds to ensure their presence in the garden year after year.Karen Bussolini is an eco-friendly garden coach, a NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional. She can be reached at www.kbgarden@charter.net or 860-927-4122.
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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