We love cucumbers but growing them is a bit more of a struggle than other plants. One year they play nice and climb the trellis and the next year they wont climb.
We have used fences, trellises, and even PVC pipe with heavy duty rope. All with limited success.
After spending the winter months researching and thinking about all things gardening I decided it was time to try a new to us method.
I mean if you cant beat them join them right. Well something like that.
Anyway I first learned about no dig from Epic Gardening over on YouTube. Kevin, the Epic Gardener did a video with Charles Dowding. Both Channels have provided me with a lot of information for tending to our own little corner of earth.
After watching Charles Dowding explain the no dig method I immediately decided we needed to try it. We had determined we wanted to grow a larger garden this year and the no dig method would allow us to try out a space and determine if it would work for us.
After a bit of discussion we also decided to try out the Three Sisters Method to grow corn, sunflowers and cucumbers. Instead of fighting the cucumbers up a trellis we would encourage growth up the stalks of corn and sunflowers.
Two rows of corn and sunflowers were planted. After they sprouted we planted cucumbers down the center. As of right now we are very excited how well this little experiment is working out but we do have some things we will change next year.
- Expand the bed so that we can have three to four rows of Corn and Sunflowers.
- Compact the dirt / compost better.
- Plant the corn and sunflowers earlier.
- Plan out the drip line better.
How has your success rate been with cucumbers? How do you grow them?