A Word About Growing Cucumbers

Cucumbers are a great vegetable for your garden.  They are versatile and they are early!

I consider cucumbers to be important to my garden, not because they are splashy like tomatoes, but because they are among the earliest vegetables to be ready in the garden.  They may not get all the press, but when you are going out to look at your garden every day, taking pleasure in every inch of growth,  there is a special thrill when you see the first fruit.  Cucumbers can easily be that first fruit!  The packet of seeds I have says "58 Days to Maturity," but I think you will not have to wait quite that long.

I think it is best to grow cucumbers from seed.  You will see plants for sale at your local garden center, but they generally give only one choice as to variety and that variety will be simply called "Burpless.'  Blah.  Don't do it.  Meander over to the seed racks and take a look at the choices.

I'm going to recommend that you purchase seeds of any variety that has the word "pickle" or "pickling" in the name or in the description underneath.  Why?  Pickling cucumbers are thin-skinned and crispy, perfect for slicing and eating.  These are the ones that have little bumps on them.
They will be crunchy when sliced and eaten with salt and pepper.  They are great for marinating in vinegar or for using in a yogurt salad.  And they make great pickles!
Burpless cucumbers are no good at all for pickles.  They make mushy pickles.  I learned about this the hard way, as most lessons are learned.  Early in my gardening life, I tried my hand at pickles.  They were mushy.  There was no internet then, so I called my county agent.  She mentioned an ingredient in the pickling solution, but I didn't learn the real reason until several years later when I read an Organic Gardening article about it.  AHA!  The culprit!!  No more burpless cukes for me!

Unless you are growing a "bush" variety, in your small garden you need to help those vines grow up.  Tomato cages are good for this (but not for tomatoes).

Pick them when they are relatively small.  You don't want to let them get fat and sort of yellow.  They get very seedy then.   If you miss one, go ahead and pick it and compost it if it's too big.