This year I grew Japanese pickling eggplant from seed. The plants are large, healthy and productive. They're still attractive to the flea beetle that persists in making mosaics out of the leaves, but other than that, they're in good shape. [Note: Watch for blister beetles! They'll eat you to nothing pretty quick!]
That's deer fence in front of them to keep the ducks out. The dog keeps the deer out.
The fruit of these plants is long, tender and delicious. The eggplant in the photo below are Japanese pickling eggplant from these very plants.
Plant eggplant on the southernmost side of your garden - they crave the heat and other plants won't block the sun - it matters. I planted mine on the south side with the tomatoes behind them. Worked perfectly!
Update: I've noticed that once the weather cooled down a bit, these have set a lot more flowers. I'm hopeful to get another nice harvest before frost.
