Does anyone know anything about gardening?

Perfect day to bring the apples in. 1 basket of cookers, 2 of eaters.

Birds have cleared the Elderberry so no Pontac Sauce making this year.

Have started to grow some chili plants. The seeds came from wahaca, will post up the resulting shoots.

Does anyone happen to have a nice rhubarb crown they want shot of?

What to do with these?

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Beer.

What type are they?

Have been trying to persuade Simon to let me grow some

If you don't know what type they are, the only fly in the ointment is that you won't know their bittering power (usually measured in a lab as 'alpha acid' content). So I would use them as an aroma hop. Pick them on a sunny day, dry them gently, brew a simple pale ale (I brew all grain like this but you could do an extract kit), use a known hop (like fuggles, EKG, available vac-packed in small amounts) for bittering (added first in the boil), and use your home grown beauties for a massive late hop addition, possibly even some dry-hopping in the cask. Boom. Unique beer.

All I did was cut some massive ivy on the barn wall and now I have to brew beer?

You did a good thing. The pleasure of brewing beer is your reward!
Or send em to me or @Kat_Balou and I'm sure an alcoholic home will be found for them.

Would love to do this. When do they have to be harvested by ? They are in Germany and I am not again for a while.

Hmm. I'm not sure, never having done it before. I think they are quite perishable actually. This vid looks quite good http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlsT-x19III

Harvest time seems getting close. Probably they will go the way of the cherries. Pity.

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If it makes you feel better we just finished eating the squash and other vegetables, Robbie very much enjoyed cooking them :)

Oli enjoyed carrying them perhaps not so much.

Yeah you usually harvest in September then prune back in winter ready for the start of spring.

I'm just going to plant some dwarf prima donna ones in our garden, Simon won't notice. He thinks everything is a weed anyway.

Just saw some bulbs I planted (in the autumn), let bloom (in the winter), cut (in the summer), and left in the soil are coming back - woot! This is the first year I've actually had a "garden", so it's nice to see the natural cycle complete itself successfully! I planted a bunch of other bulbs in the Spring. Should I leave them all in as well?

On another note, my balcony boxes are all a bit sparse at the moment now that the summer flowers are all gone. Any thoughts on fun things to plant now?

And: there's an excess of basil out there - I presume it's all going to die in the next month or two? Or will it be hearty enough to survive the winter?

Oooh, I need to do that. The squash plant was lovely, btw, thank you. Have been pretty much self sufficient in lettuce and tomatoes this year -think I might be a bit more ambitious in my veg next year. Next stop rhubarb and passion fruit crumble.

I've just built a raspberry pi powered hydroponic basil farm for the kitchen widow sill.

Its made from a couple of tin cans and a cheap pump to circulate the water. The raspberry Pi is basically an expensive timer, but it also logs the pump activity to a webpage, and in the future may also keep an eye on the water levels and temp.

If this works, I'll be growing tomatoes and peppers next year

Kingfisher, I'm absolutely loving the sound of that.

Basil will die with the first frost.
If you can, pick it, and freeze it in small bags,
so you have ready portions throughout the Winter.

Good idea. Will do!

This sounds rad

This sounds rad
I'm absolutely loving the sound of that.

Thanks Olly & BRM

I'll write up an instructable and post a link. (I'm still learning so it might die in a week, depending if the plant is getting enough water, sunlight & nutrients)

go fully hydroponic: pH, nitrogen, oxygen, temperature, lux measurement, through the controller to flow, nutrients, ventilation, light controls...

..might as well grow sweet bush ;)

That would be great. Can lights work from the raspberry?