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Trash or treasure? Choose your groundcover with care
Dee Salomon
May 13, 2026
Violets, a keystone groundcover, under a magnolia tree.
Dee Salomon
This brief period in the spring, before the mosquitoes and poison ivy proliferate, is irresistible to me. I want to do everything all at once: plant, remove invasives, examine what is coming into leaf and tend to plants that need protection, whether from deer or downy mildew.
Amid the nonstop gardening work, I recently made time to join a tour of two nearby gardens. Each had a fascinating history, and we looked at photos to see how much had changed and what was still there and flourishing, including a stand of large yellowroot with delicate brown-and-yellow flowers that look like a cross between an orchid and a lilac. It has been there for decades, a lesson in successful gardening with native plants.
As we toured, I overheard someone grumble about having too much wild strawberry in their garden. I secretly laughed, as I have worked for several years to encourage the spread of this sweet plant with its pert white flowers and miniature fruit. I have planted it under trees, encouraged it along woodland paths, and sat on the edges of the lawn for hours pulling out the very similar mock strawberry, Potentilla indica, to allow the native one to proliferate.
One of its characteristics is that it spreads readily, given room. As a groundcover, it also controls erosion. According to Native Plant Trust, Fragaria virginiana supports 75 different species of butterflies and moths throughout their life cycles and supports numerous other insects, as well as mammals and birds. This makes it a “keystone” plant, a designation that means without it, an ecosystem is vulnerable to collapse. That is a big responsibility for a small plant.
One person’s trash is another’s treasure. On the very same garden tour, another person was extolling the flowering lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis, situated in a stone-walled bed. I used to feel the same way until I noticed large swaths of it growing in the woods.
This romantic and fragrant flowering plant is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Its deep rhizomatous roots crowd out native groundcover neighbors. Lily of the valley is highly toxic to mammals and, as a nonnative, supports only a few insects that use its pollen. I have tried digging and pulling it out to no avail. This year, I am using a strimmer, aka weed whacker, even though I risk damaging nearby plants. I am hoping that after doing this a few times over the next several years, I will succeed in getting rid of it. I will keep you posted.
Native groundcover may not be our first thought when we garden, but it is an easy and fundamental way to tie together a garden bed, especially when garden plants are still immature, while helping nature at the same time.
In addition to wild strawberry, another keystone groundcover in our area is violet; it is the exclusive larval host plant for dozens of fritillary butterfly species. They are flowering now in numerous shades of their namesake color. I find them to be a native treasure, too long taken for granted and eschewed for fancier plants.
In shady areas, two gorgeous native options are foamflower, Tiarella cordifolia, which has a delightful early spring flower — a 4-inch spike of tiny white foamy blooms — and wild ginger, Asarum canadense, a dignified option that creates a bed of overlapping semicircles completely covering the soil beneath.
If you are looking for something that forms a clump, the species Heuchera americana and Heuchera villosa are known as alumroot or coral bells. Finding the original species version can be difficult, as there is an abundance of colorful cultivars at nurseries. Aside from being too flashy for my taste, the versions with red and purple tones will be largely ignored by the native insects we are trying to protect. Stay away from those and stick with the green-leaved versions.
Where do you find these and other useful and beautiful plants? The Cornwall Garden Club is hosting its annual native plant sale Saturday, May 23, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the terrace at The Pink House Restaurant, 34 Lower River Road in West Cornwall. I will be there, as will Michelle Paladino from Lindera Nursery and Heidi Cunnick from the Cornwall Conservation Commission. Come visit and say hello.
Dee Salomon ‘ungardens’ in Litchfield County.
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Dahlia Daze
Millerton News
May 13, 2026
Provided
Dahlia Daze is a multi-farm dahlia tuber festival and seedling sale featuring local growers, rare varieties, and plant starts, plus a Dahlia Talk on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Foxtrot Farm & Flowers, 6862 NY-82, Stanfordville. Reservations required at foxtrotfarmflowers.com
Classifieds - May 14, 2026
Millerton News
May 13, 2026
Help Wanted
PART-TIME CARE-GIVER NEEDED: Possibly LIVE-IN. Bright private STUDIO on 10 acres. Queen Bed, En-Suite Bathroom, Kitchenette & Garage SHARON 407-620-7777.
SUMMER OFFICE HELP NEEDED: PC and social media skills for local bookstore. Contact by text 860-671-9197.
THE TOWN OF SALISBURY: Seeking a full-time Town Hall Administrative Assistant. For more information or to send a cover letter and resume, please email: townhall@salisburyct.us. You may also view a full job description on the Town website: www.salisburyct.us/employment. Applications must be received by May 22, 2026. The Town of Salisbury is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Wyantenuck Country Club is seeking lifeguards: for our upcoming season. Lifeguard position starts end of May/mid June. Please call 413-528-0350 or email: jen@wyantenuck.org.
Services Offered
Detailed Cleaning: Spotless Spaces, Every Time: We specialize in rental turnovers and weekly home cleanings. Let’s make your space shine! 413-854-7417.
GARDENING: Spring and Fall Cleanup and Stone W alls. 845-444-4492.
Hector Pacay Landscaping and Construction LLC: Fully insured. Renovation, decking, painting; interior exterior, mowing lawn, garden, stone wall, patio, tree work, clean gutters, mowing fields. 845-636-3212.
Real Estate
PUBLISHER’S NOTICE: Equal Housing Opportunity.All real estate advertised in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1966 revised March 12, 1989 which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color religion, sex, handicap or familial status or national origin or intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination. All residential property advertised in the State of Connecticut General Statutes 46a-64c which prohibit the making, printing or publishing or causing to be made, printed or published any notice, statement or advertisement with respect to the sale or:rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, marital status, age, lawfulsource of income, familial status, physical or mental disability or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination.
Houses For Rent
Millerton, rural, newly renovated house: 2 bedroom, split air heat/a/c system, dishwasher,decks, views, pets considered. $2650 plus utilities. Call 518-567-8277.
Tag Sales
Lakeville, CT
Expansive Tag Sale: GARDEN Vintage Mount Vernon Sundial, Teak Bench, Antique Fan Shaped Trellis, Metal Patio Pieces, A Variety of Plant Stands, Potting Tables, Bird Bath ANTIQUE FURNITURE: Tiger Maple, Mahogany, Oak, Pine & Chestnut, Many Tables and Stands, Dressers, Blanket Chests MISCELLANEOUS: Brass Fire Fender, Andirons, Vintage Light Fixtures, Collectibles, Many Interesting Smalls and Useful Items, and Much More.May 16th & 17th 9:00 until 3:00.NO EARLY BIRDS PLEASE. 442 Lime Rock Road Lakeville (Route 112) Lakeville CT 06039.
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Beekman Park sidewalk project stalled after DOT halts work
Nathan Miller
May 13, 2026
Orange safety cones mark off the incomplete sections of sidewalk along Route 44 in Amenia near the entrance of Beekman Park. Town officials say multiple mistakes and poor communication with contractor Southern Industries Corporation caused delays and a stop-work order from the state Department of Transportation.
Photo By Nathan Miller
AMENIA — Work on the new sidewalk along Route 44 near Beekman Park has stalled after the New York State Department of Transportation issued a stop-order in January over safety concerns.
Amenia Town Supervisor Rosanna Hamm first disclosed the stoppage at an April 1 Town Board meeting. She said the matter is being handled by the town’s attorney, and it’s still unclear what the next steps will be, but she holds out hope that the work will resume soon.
Hamm said construction company Southern Industries had already poured, removed and replaced sections of the sidewalk multiple times since construction began in August 2025. Inconsistent work schedules and construction continuing into the winter months further complicated the project before it came to a halt.
Hamm said that town officials, along with the engineers who designed the sidewalk and DOT representatives, have inspected the work and determined much will need to be redone, including catch basins along Route 44.
A Jan. 9 letter informing Amenia of the stop-work order cites safety concerns including improper traffic control and poor pedestrian safety.
Some portions of the concrete will need to be replaced, Hamm said, because construction crews attempted to install the sidewalk while temperatures were too cold. That caused the concrete to cure improperly, leading to flaking and weakness that significantly reduces its lifespan.
“This has been a slow process, which is frustrating,” Hamm said.
Southern Industries Corporation is a Westchester-based construction company. New York Department of State filings list Jonathan Delisa as CEO, although Delisa denied being the company’s CEO in a recent phone call.
It’s unclear who officially serves as the company’s CEO. Delisa said Southern Industries’ owner recently retired and sold the company to a private equity firm based out of Ohio, but did not provide any other specific details.
Hamm also drew attention to large piles of debris left behind by construction crews in the Beekman Park parking lot along Route 44. Crews from the Amenia Highway Department cleaned up the debris in April.
Hamm said that the cleanup cost the town money and will need to be reimbursed, potentially resulting in a fine for the contractor.
Town officials pointed to Southern Industries for the delays. Hamm said inconsistent communication and a failure to maintain agreed work schedules strained the relationship with the contractor.
Delisa pointed back at the town, saying officials were difficult to work with and project designs were insufficient. He said town officials were placing undue blame on Southern Industries, prompting the company to cut ties with the town.
“They still owe us money,” Delisa said. He added the piles of debris were left behind because the contract was terminated. “If both parties had to cancel a contract, and you’re still owed money, why would you go the extra mile and continue working there for free?”
Delisa and Southern Industries are currently facing multiple civil court battles regarding accusations of forgery, impersonation and wage theft.
Delisa would not comment on the lawsuits. All of the suits were filed in the months following Amenia officials’ decision to award the sidewalk contract to Southern Industries.
The construction work currently sits incomplete, with orange safety cones blocking access and causing pedestrians to walk on the shoulder along Route 44, posing a risk to themselves and drivers, Hamm said.
“There’s no place for anybody to walk,” Hamm said. “They’re walking alongside the road, and that’s just no good.”
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Area equestrians support Ancram family after home fire
Graham Corrigan
May 13, 2026
HYDE PARK, N.Y. — Dutchess County’s equestrian community is coming together next month to support an Ancram horse trainer’s family after a fire destroyed their home in late March.
After an April fire destroyed the Ancram home of Kristy and Ronan Moloney, the waves of shock and support came from friends, neighbors, and large circles of horse owners in Dutchess County. The fire triggered a mass response from community members across southern Columbia and Dutchess County. A GoFundMe for the family has raised over $120,000, but the support didn’t stop there. The equestrian community has announced a charity competition to raise more funds. It’s set for June 7 at Netherwood Acres in Hyde Park.
The Moloney’s own and operate Kinnitty Capall Stables, an equine boarding and training center operating in the area for nearly 20 years. They’ve always been quick to offer a helping hand, so when Kristen Smith — the owner of Netherwood Acres and a horse trainer — heard about the disaster, she started brainstorming.
“They’ve always been there to help me out,” Smith said, “and been very kind to everybody. So I started thinking about what we could do.”
Smith lost her own home to a fire in 2019. She said she’s acutely aware of the toll of such devastation. “Having to pick yourself up like that, pick up your kids … it’s certainly a strain,” she said. “So I just thought, let’s get together as a community and ride together.”
On June 7, Netherwood Acres will host a combined test event that spans dressage and show jumping. All donations will benefit the Moloney family. Any equestrian interested in participating can sign up on www.striderpro.com or by contacting Courtney Hart-Delgado at cor2cort@gmail.com.
Smith says the response has been unwaveringly supportive. “When you work with animals, there’s always ups and downs,” she said. “We’re good at problem solving and coming together to do that.”
Donations aren’t the only way others can lend a hand: the event will feature a tack sale of used horse equipment. Eventgoers can also sign up for the Millbrook Horse Trials raffle drawing, which will also support the Moloney family.
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Millbrook local leads tech startups from solar-powered farmhouse
Graham Corrigan
May 13, 2026
John Merryman stands in front of a ground-mounted solar panel array that supplies electricity to his home in Millbrook.
Photo by Graham Corrigan
MILLBROOK — Technology and tradition are often at odds. But on John Merryman’s Millbrook property, they have coalesced. Familiar sights remain: The knees of his jeans are spattered with mud after a morning planting grass seed. The tires of his solar-powered farm cart are similarly smudged. It’s just another day tending to the various needs of Merryfield Farm, Merryman’s Millbrook horse farm.
Merryman purchased the property in 2022, seeking to turn aging stables into a haven for his passions. Since then, he’s turned the property into a home for his tech business and his horses.
Many of Merryman’s chores are standard fare. His beets and potatoes are already in the ground, and the horses always need looking after. Others, however, hint at the bright-eyed farmer’s many interests. Maintaining the fiber optic cables that run all over Merryfield, for example, or trimming the shrubs growing around Merryman’s massive solar panel array to allow for maximum exposure. Some afternoons, he welds. Others, he uses his pilot’s license to take to the air.
Then there’s the inside work, those moments when Merryman steps inside to check the status of his AI team. There’s a bank of four monitors in his office. Some are filled with computer code, others showing new updates for Merryman’s latest tech venture, a Ticketmaster competitor called PlayHouse.
It’s a dichotomy echoed in the property itself. “The barn and house were rented out, and they weren’t taking care of it,” said Merryman, who grew up in nearby Irvington. “I love projects. I love working with my hands and building things. And it’s kind of what I do for work, but it’s also what I do for fun.”
Merryman’s career grew on a track parallel with that of the internet. He was fascinated by computers from a young age. His first consulting job came when he was still in high school — Merryman built an HR database for the French bank Credit Lyonnais.
Soon thereafter, he graduated from Johns Hopkins in the midst of the dot-com boom and quickly found work as a sales engineer in New York City.“Everyone knew the internet was going to be big,” Merryman said. “People’s behavior was fundamentally changing.”
But it wasn’t changing fast enough. “The companies building products for the Internet were so far out ahead of customers’ behavior change,” he said. “They were assuming that this huge amount of revenue would materialize. It took longer than anyone thought.”
By the end of 2002, the dot-com bubble had burst, wiping out about $5 trillion from the economy and causing a recession. The similarities to the current AI frenzy are not lost on Merryman. “I think it’s likely that there will be some high profile bankruptcies or contractions,” he said. “But I do fundamentally believe that AI is legitimately incredibly valuable. I just think it’s going to take people longer than they think to use it.”
Merryman landed on his feet after the crash. His first CTO job was at Yodle, an online advertising startup. Merryman was the eighth employee — when he left 10 years later, the company numbered over 1,500. “I was definitely on the front lines,” he said. “I was an active coder, did a lot of hiring, figured out how to get people across multiple functions to work well together.”
By the time Yodle was bought out in 2016, Merryman was seeing a shift in the industry: archaic systems were being replaced wholecloth by technologies that could perform their simple tasks without the clutter of spreadsheets and manual data entry.
The AI revolution was still in its infancy, but it wasn’t long before Merryman saw opportunities to test its mettle. He partnered with a former co-worker from Yodle, Brian Battjer, to create TowFlow.ai, a system that automates barge logistics for commodities traders. Merryman was encouraged by how quickly the program could catch an antiquated process up to speed. “You’re catching people up to speed who otherwise would be left in the dust,” he said. “It’s never scaled to the point where we’re going to take away all their jobs … we want to make them more efficient at busy work.”
The two linked again when Battjer was approached by an old friend, Tyson Ritter. Ritter is the lead singer of All-American Rejects, a rock band popular in the early 2000s. The band saw their popularity spike unexpectedly last year when, fed up with Ticketmaster prices and fees, they started performing at unconventional venues like backyards and roller rinks.
Ritter reached out to Battjer about turning the concept into something repeatable, that other bands could use to escape Ticketmaster’s predation. Battjer turned to Merryman, and the two started building the infrastructure for PlayHouse.
Merryman saw the AI potential immediately. Using a combination of Claude Code and Cursor, he built a platform where local fans can express interest in seeing a specific band. If enough people show an interest, the bands can start selling tickets and looking for a venue.
“As an artist, you can prove your demand before you lock in a venue,” Ritter told Forbes earlier this month. “you can throw your weight into a room and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got 150 tickets sold. I need a place to do it.’”
“I like having an impact,” Merryman said. “I like building something that people actually use. It felt like fundamentally, there is a real need for this…anybody who knows much about what Ticketmaster has done does not like them.”
That includes the federal government. Last month, a jury found Ticketmaster guilty of antitrust violations, including overcharging for tickets and a monopoly over concert venues.
The full ramifications of the ruling have yet to be felt, but the need for an alternative is clear. Merryman is building one from his farm, using little more than his four monitors and a server.
“Those tools have done everything from build the code to run operations,” Merryman said. “I troubleshoot when things go wrong, but you can get an enormous multiple on your productivity.”
PlayHouse is currently fielding applications from more than 60,000 bands. They’ll be rolling out new artists each week, and in the meantime, Merryman has plenty to keep him occupied. “I enjoy the act of figuring something out,” he said. “If something’s hard, I want to figure it out even more.”
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