HDYGG: My Garden Bolted - Garden Plant Bolting

Helen Jupiter 05/31/2011

My garden bolted.

Six months ago I would have thought that meant it got its motor running and headed out on the highway, but now I know better. So, while the crops in my garden were indeed born to be wild, for them bolting is less about looking for adventure and more about perpetuating the species.

In gardening-speak, "bolting" basically means that the plant has "gone to seed," which basically means that it has shot up flower stems and started blossoming. The problem with crops bolting is that once there's a flower, the plant starts to put all of its energy into reproducing (hence the saying, "gone to seed").

Two main reasons we don't like bolting:

Production of the edible parts of the plant is significantly slowed.
The edible parts begin to taste bitter and less tender, and rapidly become unusable in the kitchen.
Two reasons why bolting can be cool:

When chives bolt, their flowers are pretty and purple. So much so that they can be used as a bouquet!
When plants go to seed, you can save that seed to sow next season.

ReadyMade is named after the term that Marcel Duchamp coined in 1915 for a series of sculptures that playfully rethought the relationship between people and mass-produced objects, everyday items and art. ReadyMade is about people who make things and the culture of making. It's a magazine for the innovator inside each one of us.