Add colour to your garden and your table

Eggplants are tricky to grow. Because starting eggplants is such a precarious business, you may want to buy them from a garden centre.

Among varieties recommended for short growing seasons are 'Dusky', 'Fairy Tale', 'Hansel', and 'Black Bell'. For longer seasons, 'Black Beauty', 'Ghostbuster' (White), and 'Italian Pink Bicolor' are worth trying.

If you decide to raise the seedlings yourself, start them eight weeks before the last expected frost.

• To encourage germination, soak the seeds in warm water for 24 hours before sowing.
• Plant in pots in which you have placed a layer of vermiculite or sphagnum moss over the potting soil.
• Sow three seeds in each pot, six millimetres deep, and water thoroughly.
• Keep the pots in a warm place: a temperature of 24°C (75°F) is needed for germination, which may take three weeks.

Seedlings should not be transplanted into the garden until day-time temperatures reach 21°C (70°F). In areas where summer arrives late, gardeners should plant early, or fast-maturing, varieties.

• When the seedlings reach four to five centimetres (one and a half to two inches), clip off the two weakest ones, leaving the best plant in each pot.
• Reduce the temperature as the seedlings grow, but be especially careful when you harden off the plants — that is, when you expose them to outdoor conditions to prepare them for transplanting into the garden. Temperatures below 10°C (50°F) will set them back.
• To prepare the soil, dig in 35 litres (37 quarts) of compost or well-rotted manure for every three metres (10 feet) of row.
• Set out the eggplants on an overcast day or in the evening so that the sun will not wilt the tender seedlings.
• Dig shallow holes 60 centimetres (25 inches) apart, in rows 90 centimetres (35 inches) apart, and fill these with water.
• When the water has drained out, plant the seedlings, leaving a slight depression around each plant to hold water.
• Water again as soon as you have planted the seedlings.

To help your eggplants flourish, keep the ground well watered and weed free. Mulch around the plants to conserve soil moisture and prevent weed growth. Black plastic mulch is preferable because it also warms the soil, but you can use any available mulching material.

• To protect eggplants from cut-worms, make a collar of stiff paper (or use a paper cup with its bottom removed) and set this around the stem and into the ground three centimetres (one inch) deep.
• If the leaves droop or seem wilted, cover the plants for a few days with newspaper tents.
• Do not plant eggplant where it, or either of the other two vegetables, has been grown within the last three years.
• Colorado potato beetles, flea beetles, and aphids feast on eggplant. Control adult Colorado beetles by hand picking. Spray with spinosad or Beauveria bassiana to control the larvae. Apply kaolin clay to deter flea beetles.

When the blossoms set and the fruits begin to form, count the number of fruits on each plant. For a healthy crop, each plant should bear no more than six fruits, so pinch off any extra blossoms.

The fruits will be 12 to 15 centimetres (five to six inches) long and 10 to 15 centimetres (four to six inches) in diameter, and will have glossy, dark purple, pink, or white skins 55 to 80 days from the day you planted the eggplant seedlings in the garden.

At this point they are ready to pick. Once the sheen on the skin fades, the fruit is past its prime. Use a sharp knife to sever the stem three centimetres (one inch) below the fruit and find a great recipe to show off the fruits of you labour.