by Francesca @ FuoriBorgo
Last time I wrote about how I failed to grow chickpeas this year (here). As is always the case for a gardener, a crop that fails is a disappointment, but a good potential learning experience too. This time I learned that chickpea plants aren't very productive, and that, in order to harvest enough chickpeas for our family of five, I would need far more garden space than I currently have. Which brings me to my subject today: growing cucumbers in a small garden. Unlike my chickpeas, cucumbers are my pride and joy this year.
Don't you love cucumbers in the summer? We do! Crispy, fresh, and juicy, cucumbers have the perfect texture and flavor for light and cool summer dishes. But I hadn't grown cucumbers for the last few years, due to a lack of space.
This year though I decided to experiment a little with new growing methods: because of space constraints I can't let cucumber plants trail across the ground, and because a trellis for them would be in the way and shade other crops, I planted cucumbers by the back wall of the garden. This is dry-wall masonry covered by thick ivy which is impossible to remove, though I suspect snails and slugs hang out here, keeping cool while waiting for the right time to pop out and devour my lettuces and leafy vegetables. It was time to find a good use for this pesky ivy.
(Of course, had I fenced my garden in against wild boars and deer, as I'd intended, I would now be using that fence as trellis. Instead, I put off building a fence, made a scarecrow (here), and thanked my lucky stars that the boars and deer haven't found my garden ... yet...)
Turns out that the ivy works great as a support for my cucumber plants, which trail happily up the ivy stems as they grow, and are thriving - I now feel ever so much better about that ivy! When you garden in a small space, it's great when you can get everything working harmoniously together - even the snail motels.
For specific technicalities on growing cucumbers, check out the excellent BBC Gardening Guide here.
12 comments:
Too bad about the chickpeas but good luck with the cucumbers!
I am about to start 'gardening' on my balcony so I look forward to read more about techniques and all, since I am a real gardening novice :)
All the best,
This Good Life
I really like the idea of using the ivy for the cucumbers to grow up. I will have to give this a go, thanks for the tip :)
Thanks - got me thinking about which existing plants cucumbers in summer could climb...I wonder about my very hardy clumping bamboo.
I have a very small space and grow my cucumbers in large 20 qt buckets and it works wonderful. I trellis them on a snow fence and they grow wonderfully. I have little problems with slugs or other nasty critters as everything is up out of the ground.
Good luck with your gardening adventures this year. Much produce for you.
Regards
Brilliant!
i always thought that ivy was poisonous. I guess that is not all ivy? My family just can;t get enough cucumbers so maybe I will make an effort to grow them if you can do it in such a small. Lovely, well done.
...giggle...
@ Lizzy - Good observation! Over here, in Europe, ivy (Hedera) is just an harmless evergreen climbing plant, very different from (and possibly not related to) the poisonous North American plant, "poison ivy", which we don't have in this continent.
Best cuke trellis I ever had was an old metal swingset covered with chicken wire, I could even crawl underneath and pick hanging cukes. So cool. Love this blog
Thanks for this idea - we have a cement wall in the back of our garden that I would always love to cover up. We have huge, trailing cucumbers plants this year too, but I never thought of using them to climb the wall and look more attractive (or at least more natural!). Thanks for the idea!
That looks so lovely! And what a great idea :) I will definitely try that next year :)
I'm so glad it worked out for the cucumbers! We love our summer cucumberes too! Our's are just now flowering.
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