Depends on the variety of eggplant. Many are large plants that will need all of that space. Radishes may work as they are quick to mature. Beans and cucumbers will use the eggplants for trellis if they get started and will shade out the eggplants.

Black beauty eggplants

How about some herbs: thyme or basil or one that you prefer the most?

Black Beauty is a very big plant so 2' spacing is the minimal for it. Anything else will be shaded out. Radish? Maybe. Some leafy greens? Maybe. Beans and cukes - no way.

Dave

I would throw some radishes in there. They mature quickly enough before the eggplant will shade anything. I always throw radishes into the rows of vegetables, no matter the vegetable, as they mature so quickly. I harvested quite a few from my lettuce and carrot rows just yesterday.

How about planting romaine lettuce or starting garlic now for next year?

I wonder if you'd like to grow parsley.

Garlic is planted in the fall not spring if you want bulbs. And one of the many loose leaf lettuces would work better than romaine. They have quicker DTM, tolerate shade better, and don't require the space necessary for heading that romaine does.

Dave

I can't resist, I'm no help, but I plant my eggplant 'Black Beauty' inbetween my flowers. It's funny how people see things. I find it a filler (love those fuzzy leaves and gorgeous solanum flowers), and you need fillers for your love, eggplant. Happy growing!

I like Jacob's suggestion on radishes. I'd also recommend herbs. basil is always a good one to plant amongst tomatoes, it should do fine between eggplant also.

I have never done Parsely.

I grow basil already and could plant more, but thats so much. lol I wouldn't know what to do with it.

I could do one spacing of parsley.

Would carrots work? Are they anything else that grows quickly like radish I could grow? Im assuming onions would not work between the spacings.

Carrots like a lot of sun, so I would be afraid that they would get too much shade after the eggplants get going.

Sweet potatoes! The vines will just grow under the plants.

Well that would be an interesting experiment Planterjeff. Have you done this yourself?

Basil needs sun. Desperately. It will do poorly between thriving eggplants, as it will do poorly between thriving tomatoes. Just another story in the plant-buddies mythology. Of course, if you pull the basil before the eggplants get big, that might work.

Dave is exactly right. Those two feet will entirely evaporate as the eggplants mature. Looks big now, but it won't later.

Hmm. I think one's garden and growing conditions should be considered. Northern gardens get more sun than southern gardens in the summer (which is kind of a surprise, since the south is generally considered to be warmer).

Eggplant plants don't grow very big in my garden, even for varieties like Aswad, and if I remember right, Black Beauty. I think that's partly due to the more compact soil, the fact that I don't fertilize a lot, and partly the semi-arid climate. I'm sure the growing season length matters, too. I can certainly believe that they would grow bigger in different gardens, though.

I've grown Spicy Globe Bush basil in partial shade with good results. It did as well as the plant in full sun. It mostly got western sun.

The plant in full sun eventually got shaded out by nearby plants (peppers, okra, Morelle De Balbis, maybe tomatoes a bit and/or weeds), but it was still fine, if you could find it (I could always smell it when I was near, at least); it didn't get squashed (just shaded, although the shade wasn't dark). Spicy Globe Bush is quite a bit different-looking than many basils, though. It might be more shade-tolerant. I'm growing a bunch of new kinds, this year, but our shade trees are coming down; so the vast majority of plants will have a lot of sun.

I don't know about regular onions, but bunching onions should work if the other things listed will, as long as they can grow tall enough without hitting leaves. It depends on how big and shady your eggplants get, I guess. I imagine yours will get bigger than mine.

No, northern gardens don't get more sun than southern gardens. Down to the lowest latitudes of the continental U.S., the sun is higher in the sky everywhere than at northern latitudes. In the absence of clouds, the height of the sun largely determines how much light shines on the ground per unit area. So, more light per unit area in the south. The day length is longer at higher latitudes in the winter, but that's with the sun very low. The day length is longer at lower latitudes in the summer. So illumination-wise summer wins, in the south, in both day length and sun elevation.

Now, you may be saying that southerners have more clouds? That's arguable, but maybe you have climactic evidence?

For mature eggplants and tomatoes, we're not talking about "partial sun". We're talking about no sun. I have six-foot tomato plants now. If I had basil plants planted a foot away, they'd be permanently shadowed and dead.

digdirt - I look at the empty area now and i think its wasted space with potential. Even if all I get is a few herbs, or baby carrots or "baby" something else at least I used the space.

Im going to do radish. Try beets, if all I get is the greens thats also good.

I have done butternut squash before and had it sprawl away from the tomatoes or eggplants. Im not doing that this year. I have a new place for them to climb and sprawl onto the deck.

How do you explain long day (for the north) and short day (for the south) onions? I'm just talking about during the regular spring/summer growing season. The day lengths aren't necessarily like that year-round. But yes, I have personally compared weather data for day length between the north and south and the north has somewhat longer summer days. It's not a huge difference, but at least some plants can tell the difference.

Alaska gets some really long days some times of the year, and really short ones other times, I've read. This is one reason they grow giant cabbages and suchlike so easily.

It's possible you thought I meant the potency of the light. I don't know one way or the other about that, but the south does usually get a higher UV index rating. (So higher amounts of light during the day generally in the south is probably possible.)

Ask the onions. I'm talking about the location of the sun in the sky and the illumination of the ground. Let's not turn a physical question into a botanical question. I have to suspect that the onions are guided by the length of daylight, and not by the amount of illumination.

Ahhh you see it as wasted space but your eggplants see it as growing room, room to spread my roots and shoulders, sun that I don't have to share so more fruit, space loaded with nutrients and water that are allll mine! ;-)

Since 5 plants properly spaced and fed can out-produce 10 plants that are overly crowded and stressed, perhaps next year a more efficient use of space would be fewer eggplant plants spaced as they require and the rest of the area used for growing the other things. That way there is no competition for what they need.

Dave

I should add that Antarctica gets really long days. In fact, they get 24/7 daylight for six months at a time at the pole. Goodness knows why they can't grow all kinds of wonderful stuff there!

Yes, to me "more sun" means more light. In a polar summer, they don't get much light (which accounts for the fact that it's pretty cold there), but the sun sure shines a lot.

With regard to shadows of eggplants, the eggplants aren't going to make the sun stay down longer, but they sure will cut down the light shining on anyone in between them. So if you have a plant whose growth is determined by whether the sun is up, go for it (and start a crop at the pole in summer!). If, on the other hand, you have a plant whose growth is determined by how much light it gets, you're outta luck.

@digdirt - I have learned over the years that space is needed for so many reasons. I was hoping I could grow something similar to radish that is quick till the eggplants get too big to grow anything properly between them. I have one area for eggplants and have room for other stuff I really want to grow. Tomatoes, peppers. cucumbers, and beans.