Sometimes looking more and doing less makes for a more satisfying landscape. When a fellow Kent resident asked me to design a garden to screen his work area from family activities, the first thing I asked was what they already had. The reply — “Oh, it’s just the woods” — made me expect the same invasive garlic mustard, Japanese honeysuckle and trees girdled and broken by oriental bittersweet that are taking over more and more of our woods every year. To my surprise, “just the woods” turned out to be an exquisite tapestry of choice native plants, growing in community, despite the hard work of maintenance contractors hired to neaten up the property. I’m afraid that I blurted out, “Do you know how much money people pay to remove the invasive plants you don’t have and plant what is already here?” The answer, a sincere and curious “No, show us; what do we have?” led to a delightful change of direction.Lowbush blueberries, Canada mayflowers, partridge berries, several native sedges, a few ferns, white wood asters and other wildflowers carpeted the forest floor, interspersed with taller huckleberries. They were shaded by oaks, hickories, red maples and more shadblows (so named because they bloom when the shad are running) than I have ever seen in one place. Most of the understory shrubs and small trees — “the brush” — had been hacked back to clear the woods. But cut shadblows were sprouting from the stumps along with maple leaf viburnums (whose berries are favored by thrushes), striped maple and sassafras. Once I pointed out each plant, explained which birds and butterflies depended upon them, showed pictures of their flowers, berries and fall color, I was asked to label the plants and write it all down so they could teach their kids. They were game to learn something new, engage the kids and shuck the high-maintenance suburban landscaping routine.We did plant a dogwood grove and some native understory shrubs, but the biggest change has been in replacing power tools with observation, selective snipping, allowing existing plants to self-seed and letting stumps, leaves and fallen branches remain to nourish the entire plant community from microbes to trees.Now the owners take pleasure in the small vignettes — a jutting rock painted with moss and sedges that catch the afternoon light, Canada mayflowers nestled between exposed roots, the plants that appear on a rotting stump. Ordering and shaping what is already there is a satisfying way to garden. On my last visit I noticed that artfully arranged rotting logs already have plants creeping up their crumbling flanks and that father and son made a path — detouring around plant treasures — by scuffing their feet through the leaf litter. The father commented that, like having a guided tour in a museum rather than just wandering on your own, having someone point out a plant, handle it and say its name makes you appreciate what is right at your feet. 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.”
Provided
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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