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.