Q: I have put a lot of composted horse manure and chicken manure in my garden and everything seems to be growing very well. The broccoli I planted last year are growing very lush and thick, with huge, healthy green leaves, but the broccoli heads that formed were narrow and spindly.

A: My bet is that the manures gave the broccoli plants so much nitrogen that they had little interest in flowering and making the head you want. A soil test is always useful to get maximum production from a garden (www.georgiasoiltest.com). At this stage of the game, I’d till the plants under. Hot weather will cause them to fade soon.