Gigi ๐Ÿ„โ€๐ŸŸซOct 26

Playing d&d (remotely* as we have since Covid started) and thinking about going outside to pick the last of the tomatoes and eggplants from the polytunnel since it dropped below freezing at some point last night.

Green tomato relish or mincemeat?
Probably the latter since I picked up apples on sale a couple of days ago.

I guess I should also take advantage of the day off to dehydrate the apples and basil that is still alive. Or maybe pesto for freezing.

Hmm.
Decisions.

Going to run and take pics and probably grab the tomatoes before my turn comes back around.

_____

Okay, I went to take photos and discovered very little had survived in the tunnel, except one small eggplant, that, now that I think about it, I should have grabbed to bring inside with the peppers.

So I picked what was worth grabbing.
(I really need a basket with a handle. I think it all the time, especially when putting stuff in sad bags for collecting.)

_____

* one of the benefits of playing remotely is I can simultaneously do a bunch of low-attention tasks like cleaning and editing simple videos, like the one I am going to drop later on Why People Need To Counter Caryma Sa'd's Many, Many Lies. I still hope we'll be able to get back to gaming in person at some point. I've been playing with this particular set of people almost as long remotely as we did in person.

#dnd #GardeningWithAnarchists #gardening #cookstadon #GigiGarden #canning #preserves

Gigi ๐Ÿ„โ€๐ŸŸซOct 12

Because I didn't have enough tomatoes to deal with ALREADY, I just went and bought two bushels of San Marzano tomatoes.

The first picture shows the ones I bought, all other photos are things I grew.

I guess I'm not sleeping tonight.

#Harvest #Canning #Preserves #GardeningWithAnarchists #gardening #GigiGarden

Gigi ๐Ÿ„โ€๐ŸŸซOct 8, 2025

A bit of a panic this evening as I only had a very short window to attempt to collect as much of the tomatoes/warm weather produce as I could because it's dropping down to almost zero tonight.

I actually did not get all the tomatoes, but hopefully the job I did of protecting what's left will work.

What the hell! It was 27ยฐ yesterday.

#gardening #ContainerGardening #GrowYourOwn #GardeningWithAnarchists

Gigi ๐Ÿ„โ€๐ŸŸซSep 30, 2025

Using the waning daylight to harvest and can.

Normally I only can roma tomatoes, but this year I've just gotta do everything because I don't have the time to deal with the amount of produce incoming.

There are only a couple of tomatoes in the photos because I have yet to actually get a little basket and pull everything that is ripe today.

I also have to get on top of the beans.
I need a clone.

#GardeningWithAnarchists #gardening #ContainerGardening #GrowYourOwn #GigiGarden

Show threadGigi ๐Ÿ„โ€๐ŸŸซSep 28, 2025

@DoomsdaysCW

I hadn't really thought of seed saving as an act of resistance.

But I guess everything is an act of resistance these days.

#GardeningWithAnarchists
#gardening

Gigi ๐Ÿ„โ€๐ŸŸซSep 27, 2025

Today is my only day off from what has become my job even though I don't actually get paid for it, despite rumours to the contrary.

I mean I'm still doing client work, but I guess I'm semi-retired.

Today I intend to garden as hard as I need in order to restore balance to my brain before dealing with the unwieldy pile of client stuff I've ignored for the last several days.

Nature doesn't give a flying fuck what else you have going on in your life. The tomatoes are going to ripen, the garlic needs to be planted, and the skunks are apparently going to eat my strawberries if I don't.

I have to figure out how I'm going to get on top of the canning for the year, or all this produce is going to go to waste.

Oh yeah, I really wanted to finish up my mini-encyclopedia of the varieties I grow, which I probably haven't added to in at least a month. Gah.

#GardeningWithAnarchists #gardening #ContainerGardening #GrowYourOwn #GigiGarden

Show threadGigi ๐Ÿ„โ€๐ŸŸซSep 3, 2025

2/๐Ÿ‘ฉ๐Ÿพโ€๐ŸŒพ๐Ÿงต

Saving seed potatoes.
I gently brush the soil off my seed potatoes and store them over winter in sterile sand.

Prepping the sand involves sifting out any bits that got in it over the summer or while I was growing stuff last year, and any small rocks that came in the play sand.

(Yes I have a lot of Temptations containers because my cat is spoiled. I love him. Too bad. They told me he had lung cancer and was going to die 7 years ago. It turned out to be endogenous lipoid pneumonia, and he is still hanging in there. That is just another one of the many common items that I recycle while gardening.)

I actually thought I took a picture of the blue potatoes before I dump the sand on them, but apparently I did not. So that's a Sieglinde on a bed of sand, and once I have enough seed potatoes, I'll cover the whole thing with sand and put it in a dark dry place.

#GardeningWithAnarchists #gardening #SaveYourSee #GrowYourOwn #GigiGarden

Show threadGigi ๐Ÿ„โ€๐ŸŸซAug 25, 2025

3/๐Ÿงต

Another thing I learned:

The reason I have never seen an artichoke even though I've planted the damn things for 4 years running, is that they have to get cold for a period, as though they survived the winter, before they'll fruit.

And also that because I live in zone 5, they won't actually survive the winter.

So I put the fuckers in the fridge.

And they do seem to be sprouting, although I may have waited until too late in the season to do this, and I'm not sure that they have enough time to actually produce the bounty of artichokes I was promised.

But at least I now know what the secret is for next year.

#GardeningWithAnarchists #gardening #ContainerGardening #GrowYourOwn #GigiGarden

Gigi ๐Ÿ„โ€๐ŸŸซAug 24, 2025

@sollat

I did a video because the photo was hard to parse with all the tarragon in that same pot.
(I'm having a weird bumper crop of tarragon. It's huge and bushy and producing florets now.)

I finally got true black raspberries this year. The only produced a few, but I'm looking forward to next year's crop.

Those are the 4-ft bamboo arches that you can get at Canadian Tire. Highly recommend; they last several years.

(I'm going to let the bot do the alt text, and then edit this when I come back inside.)

#GardeningWithAnarchists #gardening #ContainerGardening #GrowYourOwn #GigiGarden

Show threadGigi ๐Ÿ„โ€๐ŸŸซAug 23, 2025

2/๐Ÿงต

Getting a jump on seed saving.

My aim this year is to properly label every seed that I want to save or share, so that I'm not left with little jars of things at the start of next year thinking, "Well this is either this, or that, or maybe that."

And, of course, ending up with stakes that say "unknown X" or "mystery Y", or even "forgotten Z".

๐Ÿ’ก I've also learned not to write directly on the plastic packages, even with a sharpie, because some of those letters are going to vanish, if not the whole name.

And that is why I am using blue masking tape as my labelling medium.

For items that it has become clear that the name I had for it is not accurate, I'm planning to describe the produce. For instance, image 4 is NOT a Mr Stripey tomato.
(It SEEMED reasonable at the time: it's stripey, and it's a tomato. But it is a green tomato when ripe, and Mr Stripey is supposed to be yellow and red. And also way larger than this variety.)

And yes, those are single serving yogurt cups that I'm sorting my seeds into. I reuse a lot of things; whether it's plastic tubs for lining my hanging plant pots or as drip trays for other parts, or chopsticks as stakes for dwarf tomatoes, or even bottle caps for holding the plant pots above the bottom of the drip trays, there are a lot of food products that can be reused.

Anyway, back to work!

#GardeningWithAnarchists #gardening #ContainerGardening #GrowYourOwn #GigiGarden