Connie Cao’s tips for growing eggplants

Baked, grilled or pickled, stewed or steamed – there’s a multitude of ways to enjoy eggplants, and they will add gorgeous colours to cottage flower gardens or mixed edible garden beds.

There’s a multitude of ways to enjoy eggplants when making meals, and they look right at home in a cottage flower garden or mixed edible garden bed. In larger vegie gardens, dot this colourful veg throughout the garden space, rather than dedicating a single bed to eggplants – this will prevent pests from moving directly from one plant to another.

Connie’s warm & cool temperate growing tips

For cooler, temperate climate gardeners, growing happy eggplants is all about creatively finding ways to give them warmer weather for a longer period of time.
To get a head start to the season, I recommend sowing seed with some external heat (for example, a heat mat or in a greenhouse) before the weather warms up, or to buy an advanced seedling from a nursery when you’re ready to plant.
To ensure the plant has plenty of warmth, grow your eggplants in a full-sun, north or west-facing spot. If needed, grow your individual eggplants in 30–40cm pots that can be moved around to follow the sun.
To extend the end of your growing season, move potted eggplants next to a warm, brick wall or greenhouse, to maximise the amount of heat it gets before the weather cools down. Or add a portable greenhouse or cloche over eggplants growing in the ground or raised beds.

Growing plants near flowers can help encourage beneficial insects to control pest populations before they get out of hand.

For more eggplant growing tips, get our Summer 2026 issue for Connie’s full article, available here.