Sunday, May 4, 2014

Garden 2014: Cucumber Management????

It has finally begun!!  The great garden of 2014 is officially on its way to greatness!  The dirt/manure was delivered, spread, and seeds dropped in holes.  This mama is tired.  Now I have a decision to make about the beans and cucumbers.  How do you grow yours?  In the past, i erected tee-pees over the beans because i saw it done that way at a natural garden in Richmond and thought it was a great re-use of old sticks in the yard.  Turns out, though, I didn't buying climbing beans that year.  So, i had these super cool tee-pees surrounded by 10-inch high bean plants.  Dud.  Also, my dead sticks from the yard took root and started growing leaves.  Kind of odd.  I didn't do beans last year.  Then there are the cucumbers.  I always have luck with cucumbers.  I've told people that it's the one plant you can really screw up.  They just grow.  You can't stop them.  You can only try to manage them.  In the past I've used twine run from the otter edge of my boxes to the fence behind, but they weren't strong enough. I've tried PVC pipe boxes with that green rubber-y twine wrapped around like a ladder.......that was just crazy.  The last two years, I've used two large pieces of lattice in an A-frame formation.  This works pretty well, except when the plants go crazy and it's hard to get to the ones in the middle of the back or you have those 'silly' cucumbers that grow in the middle of the holes.  So, the seeds are in the ground, but I know I don't have much time to decide on a method of 'cuc' management.  Any suggestions?  I'm hitting pinterest of course, but I could use some tried-and-true stories!!




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