Leonard J. Buck Garden

Visited Leonard J. Buck Garden today, "It consists of a series of alpine and woodland gardens situated in a 33-acre wooded stream valley" their words not mine. Traffic was light and it was easy to get to, though there was a detour which put me a few miles out of my way.

Was surprised to see Primula in bloom. Might be an idea for the front garden, it could use a bit of color this time of year.

Tiarella 'Iron Butterfly', was white flower stalks when in bloom, but the foliage is nice too. The leaves have a black/purple center and is in the same family as Heuchera.

The garden has quite a few troughs. Some had small shrubs in them, I wish I knew how often they need to water the troughs to keep the shrubs alive. These three were all 2 foot or longer, but most troughs in the garden were smaller.

This one had bits of blue china strewn about in it, at first I though they were blooms. There is also Erodium there which I can't seem to keep over the winter.

A large (8 foot across) planting of the Heath Erica Carnea 'Springwood White' almost in flower.

There was work being done on one of the ponds and this lumber trackway was to provide access for the backhoe without tearing up the grass.

Cyclamen

 Most of the hilly trails had either wood or rock slab steps.

Yard Cleanup

Cleaned up the yard some more today. Put the plants in the pots and smaller troughs to bed for the winter.

Not sure what to do about the larger troughs I carved out of feather stone, maybe they are large enough to overwinter successfully.

Something not to do.
Don't let drainage holes get clogged, water doesn't drain.

 Then when the water freezes, the structural integrity of the pot breaks down.

This nice pot just showed up one day this summer in the shape you see it here, I guess someone thought it was trash. It is a very nice pot. It is a pleasant shade of terra cotta (Crayola has a shade called Terra Cotta, but no shade called Panna Cotta). Why is the pot there? Why a pot with no plant? That's a silly question, that is like asking why have a bench you never sit on?

Exactly, why have a bench you never sit on.

Fall Bacon

Yesterday, cleaned up the garden, pulled up the last of the tomatoes, pulled in most of the basil (pesto was made), spread out some compost onto the garden beds. Planted 98 cloves of garlic into the one garden bed, the other will lie fallow.

Smoked bacon today. Started the bacon on the 3rd and smoked it today. As usual made one sweet and one savory. That day I started out with a 7 lb pork belly with ribs attached. After trimming I had 2 pre-bacons, a 2.5lb slab for sweet, a 2lb slab for savory and a belly full of spareribs.
Sweet:
1/4 cup dry cure*, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 4 tablespoons Crown Royal maple finished Whisky.
Savory:
1/4 cup dry cure*, 3 bay leaves, 5 smashed garlic, 2 tbs cracked peppercorns, 5 thyme sprigs, 1tbs coriander seeds
Smoked the bacon with Hickory wood chips to an internal temp of 150 degrees F. It took about 2 1/2 hours, grill temp was just over 200.
Sweet was good, but didn't have as big a maple taste as I had expected, but the Savory was fantastic, not too salty, a bit peppery, very savory.

*dry cure from Charcuterie by Ruhlman & Polcyn, 1 part Pink Salt, 4 parts sugar(I use turbinado), 8 parts kosher salt

Hickory Smoked Bacon

Savory

Sweet

Flora
Cyclamen are coming up, I had bought 2 white ones this past spring at Stonecrop Garden's spring Alpine sale, but I don't see them. I expect they will show up next spring.

Cyclamen

 My new Heaths and Heathers all seem to be taking. They all look like they have some new growth at the tips. This one, Erica x Watsonii "Truro" is in bloom and looks great.

Heath "Truro"

Had yellow fall blooming crocus on the side garden and there is a purple one in the backyard. There were more purples in the back, but they must have been disturbed when I prepared the bed for the Heather garden. I didn't get photos of them.

This month's beer list