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

Big Green Egg

Last weekend got a replacement firebox for our Big Green Egg. We bought it on July 14, 2001 and have had no problems with it except for cracks in the firebox which we lived with for awhile. It got to the point that it really needed a replacement and the company honored the lifetime warrantee and sent a replacement firebox.

We have the Large Egg

 The new firebox, serial number 584534.

The new version of the firebox has a gap to allow for expansion and contraction and to prevent cracking, you can see the gap on the left. Every other component of the Egg is in great shape.

We have smoked bacon, roasted whole turkeys and chickens, made pizza, baked bread, made stews in a dutch oven, grilled Fred Flintstone steaks, brats, veggies, burgers and dogs. I don't think we ever roasted marshmallows though.

The Big Green Egg, the best cooker ever.

Heath and Heather Garden

Added more heathers and heaths to the Garden. I purchased them from Heaths and Heathers Nursery and selected the varieties so one would always be in flower. Also, 2 have different foliage color depending on the season. I'll replace the mulch once I'm happy with plant placement and topology. It will take a couple of years for the plants to fully fill out.

 The 5 new plants from left to right in the above photo.

 Erica Carnea "Schneekuppe" White flowers (Jan-Mar), 6"x12"

 Calluna Vulgaris "Glenmorangie" Lavender flowers (Aug - Sept ), 2"x8"

Glenmorangie closeup, Calluna Vulgaris is a Heather and has scaly foliage versus Ericas aka Heaths which have needle like foliage.

 Erica x watsonii "Truro" Mauve flowers (Jul - Nov), 6"x16"

 Erica x williamsii "Gold Button" Lilac flowers (Aug - Sept), 2" x 4" very small

 Calluna Vulgaris "Alex Warwick" White flowers (Jun - Jul), 4" x 16"

Rain chain complete, Birthday Amp and other new stuff

Finished view of the Rain Chain Pondlette.

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 Only missing something to mulch the path between the pondlette and the Heather garden.

This new heath is Erica x darleyensis "Furzey", should have pink flowers in the fall.

Here is my version of an Easter Island statute, leftover from the trough I carved the beginning of August 2013, here. It is nowhere near the size of the Easter Island statues.

I lost the tag, but I think that this heath should have white flowers. The plan is to order some dwarf heaths and heathers to fill in the new garden area to the left of the maintenance path.

My Birthday Amp. It is small and light and sounds great. I painted the grill red so when I jam with people there will be no confusion as to whose amp is whose. I looked at a Fender practice amp, but it had too many different amp models to choose from. Some of the other amps I was looking at I didn't like for purely aesthetic reasons(shiny knobs or cheap looking push buttons). If I hadn't purchased the Roland, I may have gone with the Orange Amp, just because it looked cool.

The Roland MicroCube has 6 amp models and effects; chorus, phase, flange, tremolo(so I can play "How soon is now" by The Smiths), delay and reverb.

Newcastle branched out a few years ago with seasonal ales, but only just noticed this while shopping at Holiday Beverage this week. It is just OK, I prefer the Newcastle Brown. I'm not a great fan of pale ales, though I did like the Winter Ale they brewed.

 This is just filler, it is just an OK Belgian style wheat beer.

Tried a bunch of other beers over the summer, but neither kept the labels nor took a photo, was just lazy I suppose.

Misc.

Moved the small wire fence behind the car hole to the edge of the structure. Some lazy sod had been putting their leaves in that space after I have cleaned up the leaves from my property.

Rain Chain attachment. Above: Copper wire wrapped around 2 bolts through the fascia. Below: Copper wire through the grate below the yin/yang rocks. The yin/yang thing didn't look as good as I had hoped.

Yet another trough. Drilled a series of perimeter holes. Worked the drill forth and back to connect the dots. Did the same vertically and horizontally in the center section and chiseled out the middle bits. Easy peasy. Though the dog was not impressed. Washed the fine bits out with water and filled it to see how quick it drains. Will probably have to drill some drainage holes. Or it could be a bird bath or dog water bowl.