Any eggplant I've ever grown here has performed perfectly well. One key to success with eggplant is to wait for warmer weather before transplanting them out to avoid flea beetle damage. If I transplant them into the ground in May instead of in April, I see virtually no flea beetle damage. I'm pretty far south in OK, so folks who live further north might see flea beetle damage later in spring than I see it here. If space is an issue, 'Hansel' and 'Gretel' are compact hybrids that don't take up a lot of space. Otherwise, I've yet to have a variety that doesn't grow well here. If you are interested in highly ornamental forms that you could 'sneak' into a flower bed, some produce green, white, violet, orange and even streaked/specked bicolored fruit. Eggplants are closely related to peppers and tomatoes, so if you're experienced at growing them, just treat eggplant the same way you treat them but plant it later like you should with peppers and not earlier like you can with tomatoes. One thing I learned about eggplant after moving here was that it is very, very, drought tolerant. During the extreme drought of 2006, I stopped watering the garden in late June or early July because the water bill was outrageously high and you couldn't even really tell I was watering because the poor dry ground soaked up the moisture like a sponge and begged for more water constantly. Did the garden die? Most of it did. However, a handful of tomato plants (mostly the heirloom Livingston varieties), the eggplants and a few pepper plants survived. Almost no rain was falling at all that summer and fall, but the eggplant just kept chugging along pumping our flowers and fruit until frost killed it in Oct. or Nov. I'd never realized how extremely drought tolerant it was prior to that year. I've linked a favorite eggplant source for you just so you can see some of the wonderful varieties available, if you haven't seen them all before. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Eggplant at Baker Creek Heirloom Seed

River Valley Ranch on highway p off highway 50. Just outside of Lake Geneva, heading there tonight as a matter of fact. They've been bringing in their heirloom tomatoes and the purple potatoes are always a hit. Their compost pile is huge.

Kendra, the ducks are fairly shy and will leave the backyard if we go towards the pond. When the females starts to sit, she stays in the box, even if we mow the lawn right at the box, but if you open the door to her box, she will be off and not come back for several hours or more. We have two boxes, but a starling has scared them by sitting in the door to one of the boxes, so all three females that are laying are putting their eggs into one box. I think I have scared off the starling, but it will take awhile for them to try that box again. There was one egg in that box and I transferred it to the other box. Now we have twelve eggs in that box and none in the other box. We have put a camera in each box. So far the females have gone in and left before another enters the box but in past years we have seen some nasty fight when two females both get into the box at one time. Here is video taken in 2010--It was Fathers day. In this video you may see that one duck does not make it. He finally jumped after about 20 min. Mom was still waiting for him. Here is a link that might be useful: video 2010

Wow sorry Linda, I hear your pain. We have HOWR here every summer and we did lose 1 egg (of four) in July 2007. But I don't think our wren situation is as difficult as yours seems to be. We see them nearby occasionally, and often hear them not too far away. But we chase them off if/when any come on our property. And our parent Blues (Missy & Mr.B) both discourage them ferociously if they ever come near Missy's box. This pair has successfully fledged 41 baby blues in the past 3 seasons (8 completed nests with a 9th underway), without a single loss of either egg or chick to the wrens. We've made our decision not to use a wren guard for reasons we are comfortable with. And frankly we've heard just too many accounts of HOWR destroying nests in boxes that had wren guards installed. We know that many bird lovers willingly allow and even encourage House Wrens to nest and breed, and this can lead to their forcing many other songbirds out of a habitat completely. (The same could be said of the House Sparrows). So, I'm not sure how to offer you specific advice or comfort. I fear it will be up to you and your Bluebirds to overcome your local HOWR problem. Best luck to you and your birds, Kenn Here is a link that might be useful: Kenn & Temple's Bluebirds