How a neglected patch of ground in Lewisboro became the MOAT

Sharon Slocum and Emily Wein proudly pose with a bird feeder at the nearly-half-acre the highway triangle planted with a vast pollinator garden.  JIM MACLEAN PHOTO

By MAUREEN L. KOEHL

The Lewisboro Garden Club was formed 54 years ago in July 1972 when two Lewisboro Hamlet women decided the town could use some beautification.

Katherine Baker and Goldie Robitaille with the help of interested friends began a program of dressing up the triangles at road intersections, at first in their own hamlet with the triangles at the corner of Shady Lane and Elmwood Road and at the corner of Elmwood Road and Route 123, near St. Paul’s Church. 

Helped along with donations from a local nursery and garden club members, it didn’t take too many years for the triangle beautification idea to spread from Vista to Goldens Bridge. Today there are 23 triangles throughout Lewisboro’s six hamlets tended lovingly by club members.

Most of the triangles are nestled snugly into intersections, but the star of this story is the latest and the biggest of all the undertakings, hence the nickname, MOAT — the “mother of all triangles.” 

MOAT covers about .41 acres at the intersection of Bouton Road and Post Office Road in South Salem. Discussion of tackling the derelict area began during pandemic time in 2021, its abandonment seeming to be asking for rescuing. 

Once farmland, the land had returned to a jungle of native plants, trees, shrubs and invasives. With the help of the town highway department, plans were made to tame the poison ivy, bittersweet, porcelain berries and briars that had taken over the hillside. Garden club members MaryAnn Eggleston, Mary Ann Lansdale and Darcy Rydlun were instrumental in getting the transformation under way. A landscaping crew was hired to do the heavy prep work; wildflower seeds were scattered and native plant plugs from Hilltop Hanover Farm were planted. Small trees were cut down and others were given away. Meanwhile, volunteers spent hours over the following years removing the invasives and battling the poison ivy and bittersweet and multi-flora roses, a battle that continues with an end in sight, at least that is what is hoped by Emily Wein and Sharon Slocum, the current MOAT keepers. 

“There was a wonderful community aspect to the preparation of this huge area,” Slocum said. “Pulling out invasives was a great ‘puller together’ of volunteers of all ages. In May a group of John Jay High School interns helped with ditch digging and invasive clearing of the area along Bouton Road.”

Slocum is the design planner; Wein decides what plant goes where on the hillside, but both women insist the MOAT tells them what it wants and where each species will thrive. With an eye to native species and pollinator-friendly plants like mountain mint, goldenrod, beebalm, wild asters and black-eyed Susans that have beckoned passers-by to stop and admire the gardeners’ work and say, “Thank you!” is satisfaction enough for the volunteers’ hard work. 

Next spring will bring another palette of beauty to the MOAT. To the uninitiated the triangle name caused LGC member, Rebecca Keebler to ask, “Where is the moat?” Once the title was explained, she marveled at the variety of the landscape and dedication of the volunteers who work at least one day a week from mid-April through the summer clearing dead stalks, weeding and adding plants. 

“Once the invasives and non-native plants were gone, the variety of species that came forth was amazing,” Ms. Slocum said with a smile. 

And, Wein added, “The variety of insects has been an education for the volunteers. We have seen many species of native bees, wasps and hosts of insects that visit the spotted beebalm and other flowers.” 

Butterflies and birds are constant visitors, as are the usual squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits and deer.

MOAT is a work in progress. About three quarters of the area are well established. Some areas are more structured and garden-like while others have been left alone to do their own thing resulting in the almost half-acre incorporating a meadow and a more formal area.

“The hillside is in full sun with a sandy middle. Everything we put in there grows to our delight,” Wein and Slocum said. 

Plans for development of the northern section of MOAT feature a stately pignut hickory tree thought to be about 100 years old, a monument to the legacy of the Gilbert and Hull farms that once formed the hillside. Only certain plants will grow successfully under hickory trees. Among them are white wood asters, pussytoes and ferns. The MOAT ladies were not surprised then, to see these plants gracing the ground below the hickory tree’s branches and may determine what else will happen there.

“After all, MOAT tells us what it wants and how to read the land,” Slocum said. 

In this time of climate changes and the emphasis on keeping things natural and native to the local vicinity, planting of species that provide sustenance for the insects and animals that share our environment is important. These plants provide the seeds that will ensure our future. According to Eggleston, a Lewisboro Garden Club member and contact person for the Pollinator Pathway in Lewisboro, MOAT is a pollinators’ paradise. All the Lewisboro triangles are included in the national Pollinator Pathway map with the names of the plants on each triangle included. 

Pollinator Pathway gardens in Lewisboro are identified by a butterfly sign. Look for the sign as you travel the local roads and remember to look for the MOAT. It will float anyone’s flowery boat.  

Visit pollinator-pathway.org for more information. 

Maureen L. Koehl is the Lewisboro Town Historian.