The Broccoli Bolted

Although the majority of our gardening is done in containers, we do have a 10'x2' space in the backyard where we can put things in the ground. We have worked and re-worked the soil, trying to make it as healthy as possible for the plants that go in, removing huge rocks, wire, old garden tags from the person who lived here before us, and even construction materials that must have been left behind when our house was built more than 15 years ago. We added lime when we first moved in, and we add a bag of manure to the plot every spring. We carefully weed and mulch this little plot. I love seeing earthworms popping in and out of it when I'm gardening there; it lets me know the soil is healthy. I'm writing all this because I feel like we pay a lot of attention to our little plot.

This year we decided to try something new in the plot--broccoli, onion, and garlic. (In prior years, we have used this area for growing tomatoes and peppers (2009), and beans and luffa (2010)).

The broccoli plants seemed to be doing well at first (first two pics are from April and early May) and now the broccoli is gone because the plant has bolted. I'm not sure how I missed it. It rained a lot last week, so I didn't really go outside. I had a few late nights at work, and Mr. Bumble Lush was out of town, so that was one less pair of eyes to look around. Temperatures suddenly went from comfortably cool to hot and muggy, and it jump started all the cold weather plants into bolting. Regardless, the broccoli has gone to seed, and we missed our chance to harvest it. $#%@!!

We have more broccoli seeds, which we'll hold onto for late summer and try this crop again in the fall. This serves as a reminder that we definitely work by trial and error. Meanwhile I'm admiring the bright yellow flowers and searching the internet to see how involved it is to harvest the broccoli seeds.