On 8/20/2016 10:37 PM, Ecnerwal wrote:
In article ,
George Shirley wrote:

What's your climate and part of the world? We grew eggplant and zucchini
in our very small, mostly sand, garden in Saudi Arabia. They weren't

43 north. 70-odd west. 'dam Yankees. If I throw up a hoop house I might,
just might , have a hope in heck. Global warming has simply not made
this part of the world safe for happy egg-plants yet (and the actual
effects of GW make it less safe for them, not to mention what they did
to all the fruit tree blossoms this spring - too warm, too early,
followed by too cold followed by no fruit a'tall. More chaos, not
"simply a little warmer.")
I spent a year in Newport, RI back in '59/'60 and this Texas boy damned
near froze to death. Not to mention the destroyer I was on cruised the
North Atlantic ice pack most of a winter. Have friends on another group
that garden up yonder in frozen land and they have the same complaints.

At the moment I'm looking at a ton of green tomatoes, but they are just
ripening in dribs and drabs - I didn't even plant eggplant this year,
and just as well, the garden is a mess (other things have reared their
ugly heads to take priority) and I need to redo the hoofed-rat fence.
Should have another month or so before normal frost date, last year it
was 2-1/2 months more, so hopefully they will get their act together,
but right now it's a bit frustrating.
Be grateful you're even getting tomatoes, our tomatoes when south early
on when the heat scale started getting over 100F this summer. Same with
sweet peppers but the eggplant is still producing for some reason and
our zucchini never laid a fruit, just withered and collapsed.

The old Italian guys have their tricks, but not all of those are easily
applied without obtaining a different house first that has a better
situation for a garden right up against a south wall that's in full sun,
say. It's a good trick, but one that really has to be applied before you
start.

In your climate position of the house as a wind break, tree line nearby,
etc. really helps your garden. I've seen folks put up an eight foot high
wooden fence on the windward side of their gardens and it helped a
little bit. We will say a prayer for you, about the best we can do at
this distance.