Two years ago I made my first endeavor into growing eggplant. None of them grew. Gardening comes fairly easily to me and most of what I attempt to grow does pretty well as long as the weeding gets done. Therefore it was a complete surprise that not one little eggplant seedling survived in my garden. I racked my brain to determine whether there was excessive pest pressure or whether they hadn't gotten enough water. Not enough compost? More mulch to eliminate the competition from the weeds or retain more moisture? For the life of me I couldn't figure out what I had done wrong. Yesterday morning, I got my answer. Out into the garden to transplant some veggies and start the next successive planting of seed; then I noticed the weeds. I set down my transplants (which remain in the same place I set them down yesterday) and started in weeding the green beans. Well, from the green beans, over to the cucumbers, then the swiss chard, and then, and then, and then... Finally I came to where the eggplant should have been. It couldn't be, not again. I couldn't see one seedling. The weeds weren't even that bad, what could I have done???
As I began tearing at the weeds, I noticed a weed which had arranged itself neatly into rows. I thought to myself, that pesky weed, it devoured my eggplant and... No I wasn't intoxicated, but perhaps the sun had fried a couple of extra brain cells. It turns out that eggplant seedlings look A LOT like the swamp weed that grows in my garden. Those poor seedlings never had a chance two years ago.
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