Garden update – what happens when there’s an unexpected cold snap?

I’ve been forgetting to write, so a brief catch-up to where we are: almost all crops are now in the garden, with some succession seedlings started, hardening off, etc. Still a few radishes and peas to plant, and lots more beets and carrots. My first soft-neck garlic has already fallen over! Asparagus and hosta harvesting is over, and rhubarb is starting to take off. Yesterday we inventoried the freezer stash to make sure we menu-plan appropriately and clear the backlog!

It’s been a fairly typical spring with one glaring exception. Our last average frost date is around the last week of April. I planted a lot of my cool season, frost-tolerant stuff just before then, including cabbage, pak choi and lettuce. I also had a little over-wintered kale that was starting to grow. Shortly after that, still in April, we had unseasonably warm weather for a few days, then back to our usual April/May climate. The warm jolt was too much, the kale, choi and cabbage all bolted.

Bolting, or flowering, happens for one of two reasons. One is that a plant is mature and ready to produce seeds, and the other is that the plant has been very stressed and thinks it’s going to die, and it wants to quickly clone itself before it kicks the can. Too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet – any of those things can spook plants and cause them to bolt. Often they bolt quickly if they are planted out too late, when the weather is warmer than they’d prefer.

A few weeks after that, WELL into May and a full 3 weeks after our usual average last frost date, we had a week of very cold nights – and it frosted! My tomatoes were already out – even some peppers were out! I’m very thankful some cloches protected the majority of them, only lost 1-2. But, shortly after, one of my tomatoes started flowering! It’s barely got two sets of leaves. I think it thinks we’re headed into fall and it had better get a move on.

Other gardeners have noticed other effects from the bizarre weather. The blooms on their peonies aren’t as lovely, or the buds on their fruit trees fell off prematurely. Last year it was something different – we don’t often get hail, but it fell with a vengeance on apple orchards, blasting tiny holes in many of the premature apples. The year before it was something different again, and of course other areas get increasingly severe floods, wind storms, fires, etc.

The increasing frequency of these unusual weather whims are an uncomfortable reminder of our global food supply’s vulnerability. It takes so little to wipe out a field of produce, or thousands of fields. For me, the bolted plants can go to the chickens – but that’s not an appropriate or available solution for the world.