What could be nicer than a basket full of young green cucumbers fresh from the garden? Well that is exactly what I had from my garden this summer.
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.
Tags: cucumber seeds, cucumbers by the dozen, cucumbers from the garden, growing cucumbers, pickled cucumbers, vegetable garden
In my previous post, “Cucumbers by the Dozen”, I described how I had harvested tons of cucumbers from only six seeds.