Cucumbers

My seeds are arriving, not that I actually need seeds but there is something comforting about having my own seed library.

Next week my column will talk about one of my favourite summer vegetables, the cucumber. I am trying a new variety this season and will keep you posted with photos as to how it works out.

Best Vegetables for the First Time Organic Gardener

The five top crops for the home vegetable organic garden are and this is not in order of importance: leaf lettuces, radishes, snow peas, tomatoes and cucumbers.

The snow peas, cucumbers and tomatoes can all be grown vertically in containers if your space is limited or if you simply do not want to bend over to tend them.

Leaf lettuce is a lettuce with an open growth habit, which forms loose clusters of leaves rather than a tight head of lettuce, red leaf lettuce is an example.

Leaf lettuces reach maturity before other lettuces and are ideal for the short season garden. I like growing several plants that are early producers, because where I live the winter is long and begins in the fall and drags into spring so having something fresh from my own garden as soon as possible is most welcome.

This is why I also grow radishes. Radishes can reach maturity in 28 days. This means I have something that I grew something fresh and healthy quite early in the growing season.

Snow peas are great in a stir fry served with rice or make a great addition to a salad. In fact, all these vegetables can be combined in a number of ways for salads.

Cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce make a fine sandwich. Cucumbers are one of the foods that remind me of my youth and a garden just would not be complete without them.

Tomatoes can be grown up trellises and in tomato cages stuck into a container. You can grow quite a few cherry tomatoes in a container that is 24 inches across and at least 18 inches deep.

If you need to keep it simple then the five top crops for the home vegetable organic garden are leaf lettuces, radishes, snow peas, tomatoes and cucumbers.

The Home Vegetable Garden News: July 1, 2014

" Do you have the summer gardening blues? Has the heat wave turned your cucumbers vines into rope and left your tomatoes as brown as the cracked dirt they're growing in?" read on in


The Home Vegetable Garden News

From A Neighbour's Garden 2012