One thing I’ve been thinking a lot about as I try and grow as a gardener is knowing when a plant is ready. What do you look for? How do you know that something is ready to bolt?

I’ve blown it with the broccoli. What I know now is that the moment the heads show any sign of splitting apart, you need to harvest. The seeds are pretty and plentiful but the heads are inedible.

I’ve blown it with the arugula. These germinate so well and transplant so well that I thought I didn’t have to pay them much mind. Boom — beautiful flowers and bitter greens. These I’ll just know to get when the leaves are smaller.

It’s like cooking though. How many years did it take me to learn to pull burgers before they were hockey pucks? How many years before I could trust my read of the heat of the coals and the time necessary to cook a fat burger all the way through?