And only from 6 cucumber seeds!

For some reason, we had been buying those long tunnel-grown cucumbers and it had been ages since I’d planted any of my own.

So early this summer I decided to give it a go. I chose a north-facing spot along the fence of my vegetable garden because I prefer cucumbers to climb.

Cucumbers that lie on the ground are liable to be eaten by insects.  And in any case, they always have a white underbelly where they have been in contact with the ground.

So I prepared the soil with lots of home grown compost. And then I bought a packet of cucumber seed and planted about 18 seeds.

It wasn’t a big patch as I reckoned we only needed one or two cucumbers a day.

In a few days the seedlings sprouted.  And once they were well established I thinned them out to only six plants at about 50 cm apart.

You’ll notice that I didn’t use seed trays or seed boxes.  I always prefer to grow in situ wherever possible so that the seedlings don’t get disturbed.

I watered them well every day and very soon they started to climb up the fence.  They didn’t need any help at all and seemed to take on a life of their own. It wasn’t long before dozens of perfectly formed baby cucumbers began to sprout all over the vine.

Luckily we had good rains during the season and I soon had more cucumbers than we could possibly use.  I gave away a lot of cucumbers to family and friends and of course I pickled cucumbers and made cucumber salad till the family went on strike!

Trouble-free Vegetable Gardening

The bottom line is that my cucumbers grew easily and without any fuss.

I found it to be an ideal crop for trouble free vegetable gardening. And I really mean trouble-free because I am into organic gardening and I didn’t use any sprays or artificial fertilizers.

If there were one or two bug-bitten plants I simply threw them out to the birds!  There were more than enough for all of us!

Next time I’ll give you my very quick and easy recipe for cucumber pickles.

Here  is my pumpkin fritter recipe.

The fritters always turn out puffy and golden brown.

My Easy Pumpkin Fritters

2 cups mashed pumpkin (500gm)
½ cup flour (125gm)
2 level teaspoons baking powder,
Pinch of salt
1 beaten egg
A little milk if the consistency is too tight.

Mix well and drop with a tablespoon into hot oil. Lightly brown both sides.
Drain on absorbent paper and serve hot with cinnamon and sugar.

Tip: I don’t like to deep fry or use too much oil so about 1cm of light sunflower oil covering the bottom of the pan is quite enough.   I also don’t use olive oil as the flavour is too distinctive.

Pumpkin fritters do depend on a good pumpkin to start with.  And as pumpkins don’t always have the same consistency you may have to adjust your ingredients.

Try not to use a pumpkin that is too young as it tends to be rather watery.  If you do find that the pumpkin is a bit watery, add a little more flour.  The consistency should be firm but not sloppy.

Let me know how your pumpkin fritters turn out!

I kept a few pumpkin seeds from a really good pumpkin we had bought at the supermarket.  I knew that pumpkin vines needed a lot of space. So I planted just 6 seeds at the bottom of my garden.

Our garden slopes towards the bottom boundary so they were well out of sight and I forgot about them until a few weeks later when I saw some big healthy pumpkin leaves.

It didn’t take long before yellow pumpkin flowers started to develop and soon one plant in particular began to trail down the slope bearing lots of little white pumpkins.

A few good rains and some overhead watering and the pumpkins really started to take on a life of their own.  It wasn’t too long before I began to invite visitors to see our giant pumpkin plant with its huge white pumpkins.

They grew and grew till I didn’t know what to do with them. I didn’t even know when to start picking them.

Eventually it seemed that they couldn’t grow any more.  And I was right. I needed a wheelbarrow to transport them one at a time up the slope. They were huge.

I had a lot of happy friends and family who each received a prize pumpkin. I also had enough pumpkins to last us through the winter.

The joys of organic gardening!  I hadn’t used any fertilizers beyond a little compost and certainly no toxic sprays or poisons. But I must be honest.  I didn’t really need them – the pumpkins  grew so easily!

Next time I’ll share my special pumpkin fritter recipe. The fritters are puffy and delicious.

I realize that not everyone loves spinach but there are some spinach recipes that could make even the greatest spinach despiser change her mind.

Photo:Mary Mactavish

Now as for picking spinach – there is a secret that not everyone knows.  Dedicated gardeners will know how – but there are some cooks who will advance on their kitchen gardens – huge carving knife in hand just waiting to decapitate whole plants without giving a thought to how they will regenerate.

Always remember – you don’t want your spinach plants to cringe and cower when they see you! If you pick spinach carefully, the plants can go on growing the whole season and provide you with their nutritious green leaves for months to come.

How to Pick Spinach

The correct way to pick spinach is by removing only one or two healthy outer leaves from each plant. By the time you have gone down the row you will have gathered a bunch full of fresh green spinach leaves.

In this way the spinach plant won’t even notice that it has been trimmed and it will continue to grow and produce fresh new leaves from the centre.

Here is an easy quick creamed spinach recipe that I’m sure you will enjoy.

And all this from a patch of a dozen or so magic climbing beans. It was a roaring success!

Now this year, I didn’t want to grow my beans in the same place so I prepared a new bed in another part of the garden.

Ready Made Fence

There was a ready made fence for the beans to climb on so I thought it was ideal. Then I sat back and waited.

But what a disaster! My beans plants were so straggly that I couldn’t bear to look at them.

All the leaves were reduced to a web of lace by an invasion of some nasty leaf eating insects.  And obviously the yield was very poor. The new garden was a total failure. I had thought I could pull one over on the beans.  But clearly I couldn’t.  They knew better. My climbing beans were too smart to be fooled.

Last Year’s Beans Were in Full Sun

Well, I know exactly why this happened. I had planted the beans too close to a group of trees and they clearly did not get enough sun – whereas last year’s beans were in full sun. Also, the soil was not as rich as the soil in the first bed.

In my defence, I had run out of compost. But I learned the hard way that beans are not to be fooled. Do what they want and they can be charming and obliging. But try to bluff them and they simply go on strike.

Anyway, having learned my lesson I started all over again and went back to preparing the original bed in full sun where I had previously had so much success.

I carefully composted the bed till the soil was dark and friable. I put up a fence for the beans to climb on. And then I planted exactly 20 beans.  Talk about Jack and the beanstalk!  My hopes were high.

Now I don’t want to talk too soon – let’s just say that my beans shot up tall and healthy in record time. At present they are climbing all over the supporting fence and the leaves are big and healthy.  I am now waiting for the first flush of flowers.

I’ll report on any new developments as to the  progress of my organic beans in due course.
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