Dreaming of Eggplant amidst Coronavirus

 

 

It is snowing here in Denver, but eggplant bushes are producing fruit in many places in the world. I know this of course because eggplant originated in climates much warmer than Colorado. And I also know this because my Houston daughter’s garden is magnificently producing eggplant right now. I can only dream.

In early February, when I visited Houston, the Coronavirus was just a blip on our worry-meters. We were more concerned with tracking down a copy of The Whole Seed Catalog and musing about the giant eggplant bush in her yard. We had never seen one so large. It was sprawled out across the four-foot raised bed and when we propped it up between trellises it was almost five feet high. For context, my eggplant are typically about two feet high and pretty tidy.

Eggplants are perennials (living from year to year) in their native southeast Asia. That fact has no practical application in my Zone 5 gardens where the plants die with the first frost. And although Houston is a lot warmer than Denver, they still get frost. The Houston garden books my daughter has read all treat eggplants as if they live only one season. This particular plant had apparently not read the garden books. It was vibrantly alive after a cold (for Houston) winter and was loaded with flowers.

Our best theory about its success is that the siding on the house and the back yard fence, both of which are metal, created a warm micro-climate. The metal soaked up the winter sun and radiated it out to the raised bed at night. It was beautiful to see. When I got home, I kept showing pictures of this plant to non-gardeners who politely said, “that’s nice,” because they had no frame of reference for the size. Really, it is freakishly large. And now it is producing lots of actual eggplant fruits.

Dreaming of Gardens

So I’m dreaming about my own eggplant harvest. I brought a cutting home from my daughter’s plant and it is sending out roots in water. Hopefully it will produce in my Denver garden. I also have tiny eggplant seedlings coming up under lights. In between our spring snow storms I’m getting garden beds ready. But eggplant seedlings are at least seven weeks out from getting into the ground.

Still, dreaming about gardens is a good pastime during a spring snow storm and as we isolate from one another. Judging from how quickly the garden centers and seed companies are selling out, many people are dreaming of gardening.

There are lots of smart and practical reasons to grow food, especially during a pandemic. But don’t lose sight of the fact that nurturing plants is a deeply satisfying endeavor, in addition to being practical. And deeply satisfying activities are important for our emotional well being.

Humans have tended, nurtured, and co-created with plants for a very long time. Eggplants have been cultivated for at least 2,000 years. And agriculture has a much longer history, starting about 11,000 years ago. Think about that for a moment. Working with plants is woven into our collective human memories and maybe even our DNA. Whether we have windowsill plants, a community garden plot, or a backyard garden, we are connected to our ancestors when gardening. And those same ancestors who tended gardens also lived through other viruses, pandemics, and challenges we can only imagine.We are here because they made it through. So take heart. Start dreaming of gardens, and plant something if you can.

(Next blog post: garden projects that take little space or resources)

Eggplant Resources:

The Old Farmer’s Almanac on Growing Eggplant

Favorite Eggplant Varieties:

Casper White

Rosita