Flowering, in and of itself, is a gorgeous act...but

But sometimes bolting, a gardener’s term for flowering, is what we’re trying to avoid

If you have grown a little garden chances are you’ve experienced planting arugula, lettuce, spinach, flowers, anything really and it bolts sooner than expected. This means that the plant sends up a stalk and flowers before it’s frankly big, leafy, and lush enough to harvest anything. 

This happened to my queen anne’s lace and clarkia flowers this year. I’d say a good fifty percent of them are miniature versions of what grew last season. The result: a stunted little plant which, because of circumstances I’ll go into shortly, channeled its energy into flowering and setting seed. Ultimately ensuring reproduction rather than vegetative bounty.  

A few things are happening here. First the plant likely got off to a rough start. Stress is real and it doesn’t apply to just us humans. Maybe it was not watered enough when it was still in its seeding trays or when it was newly transplanted. Perhaps the temperature got really hot, really fast. Or it may be in a location that’s not optimal. Even in a small garden there can be so many different microclimates. I’m constantly looking around as plants mature as to how everything changes. Because it does. 

It is worth noting that plants are pretty damn tough. And I’m a regular advocate broadcasting their resilience and adaptability. However they’re also sensitive, so it’s important to consider and note what happens based on context and conditions, timing, weather, and the level of engagement, participation, and care you provide.

Bolting is flowering, but…

When I talk about bolting, it’s the accelerated flowering often induced by:

• Environmental stress (the biggest one is temperature, heat more so than cold

• Nutrient deficiency

• Lack of water at key times (could also be considered an environmental stress but I’m making its own thing)

• Insufficient development of a healthy root system contributing to an overall underdeveloped plant

This is not the natural evolution of flowering though it is an inevitable stage in a plant's life. Considering that all plants will eventually flower in their life cycles, this is when it’s premature and drastically influenced by surrounding conditions.  

Good news, this is nature doing what nature does best, ensuring life continues on regardless of what we think we’re ‘doing’…The plant too is ‘trying again’. Flowering and producing seed because maybe next time the conditions will be just right. 

Some Soilutions

There are a few things you can do to play around and or manipulate the conditions of your garden. At the end of the day you’re experimenting and conducting research in real time. As I always say, gardening is a constant game of observation and adaptation. There’s nothing quite as satisfying, responsive, and dynamic as being your own naturalist. 

The learning from gardening like cooking happens through trial and error or trial and success. Build the health, microbe, and matrix of your soil through organic practices, cover cropping, mulching, and application of ample compost. In building the health and structure of the soil you enhance its ability to hold and distribute water and other organisms which support overall plant life. 

Excessive heat and or overexposure can be a huge contributor to bolting. Heat combined with the intensity of UV rays can push a plant to flower early, wilt, and even be more susceptible to disease or bug ambushes. Like I said, stress!

Slow down and breathe

A great practice to consider is to stagger your planting schedule with a diverse variety of species so that something larger, a shrub, tree, larger vegetable or flower, can get a head start and create a kind of over story. In doing this you are creating layers within your garden as well as areas of shade and filtered light. Using shade cloth can also be super beneficial. I love creating these small little vignettes. I call them conversations because that’s exactly what they are.

Location is also a factor. Just like planting lettuces or herbs under larger plants, you can also plant in such a way where they receive most of their sunlight early in the day in contrast to the afternoon. Generally the hottest time of day is between 4–6pm and the plants bake. This means planting on the eastern side of something, your house, a tall fence, a rock wall, or a hedge row of larger plants, versus west facing. (Make appropriate adaptations depending on where in the world you live. It’s relative.)

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At this point you may be asking, well what’s exactly going on? Well as you may have already gathered it can be quite nuanced. This is why, more than anything else, I encourage experimentation, making notes in a field journal, and becoming a master of what’s happening in your space, i.e. heat, water, soil health. You really can’t compare them to any other location because your little microclimate is often completely and utterly unique. 

Without caring how metaphysical this sounds, it’s not that terribly different from understanding your own unique signature. The context, the circumstance, the year, the day, the environment, ALL contribute to health and growth patterns. 

Yours, Erin