I'm so jealous of all your gardens!! I can't wait to have a proper vegetable garden, but for now I have to make do with pots on my patio.

"garden"

my haul today:


Question I have, which may very well have been asked/answered earlier but I can't go through 27 pages: how do you keep some veg/herbs from "bolting"? I was trying to keep the cilantro and swiss chard from bolting, but no go. It was a futile endeavor so I just let them go.

And incidentally, does anyone know what this tree is? I'm thinking it's part of a hazel family, but I've yet to see it anywhere for me to actually identify it. It flowers bell-shaped purple flowers and bear seeded pods:


sorry for the bright background: