eggplants

Let's take a moment to silently remember our fallen plants taken down by malicious little pests. Dreams of delicious produce destroyed by the tiny jaws of harmful insects. This is the damage a colony of flea beetles can do in very little time. I tried everything from beating them with a stick to giving the poor plant baths in effort to get rid of the pests. Alas, sadly, nothing could stop their reign of terror. Then, like magic, they disappeared!

The joy of their absence didn't last long. "Teenage" Japanese beetles (not quite a beetle, yet not really a grub worm either) decided to move in and finished them off. The poor plants and I didn't stand a chance!

Due to the terribly failed attempt to save a single eggplant from the onslaught of pests, I seriously contemplated removing them from my garden plans altogether. After all, with that kind of pest wreaking havoc on them, how could I possibly grow a productive eggplant?

Well, as I was reading through various companion plants, I found an article about garlic. One of the perks of planting garlic (other than the delicious recipes in which it can be use) is that it deters various garden pests like beetles. I also read that catnip deters flea beetles. Therefore, I'm going to give the eggplants another try and plant them next to some garlic along with a healthy bunch of catnip. I might put the catnip in pots so it doesn't spread as much throughout the garden. Only time will tell if it will work.