This article focuses on a rarely studied aspect of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s oeuvre: his interest in gardening and more precisely vegetable gardening. Close attention to the text reveals that gardening is part of larger philosophical questions related to private property, luxury, space, education and theatre. Some of Rousseau’s most productive ideas are supported by references to gardening particularly the cultivation of ‘miserable’ beans and ‘prized’ melons. The two plants which were commonly grown in eighteenth-century gardens are at the centre of a philosophical parable in Emile. Beans and melons and their symbolical values fertilise larger questions Rousseau engaged with throughout his life. Although he favoured botany over horticulture, he used kitchen gardens as sites of philosophical experiments.

中文翻译：

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豆类和瓜类：卢梭的菜园

本文重点介绍让-雅克·卢梭 (Jean-Jacques Rousseau) 作品中鲜为人知的一个方面：他对园艺和更精确的蔬菜园艺的兴趣。密切关注文本会发现园艺是与私有财产、奢侈品、空间、教育和戏剧相关的更大哲学问题的一部分。卢梭的一些最富有成效的想法得到了园艺的支持，特别是“悲惨”的豆类和“珍贵的”瓜类的种植。十八世纪花园中常见的两种植物是埃米尔哲学寓言的中心。豆类和瓜类以及它们的象征价值助长了卢梭一生都在探讨的更大问题。尽管他更喜欢植物学而不是园艺，但他还是将菜园用作哲学实验的场所。