Planting and Prepping for Cucumbers

Cucumbers! 

This is a odd one for me to plant year after year - last year I planted too late and didn't water enough -  that however isn't what makes it odd, the fact that I am highly allergic to fresh cucumber is.

I found out a few years ago, after a few trips to the ER, that I was allergic to an enzyme in cucumbers.

Luckily for me its a very basic enzyme that breaks down once its cooked or pickled. So I can pickle! Two years ago a wonderful neighbor gave me a large batch of leftover cucumbers (giving and sharing vegetables is common practice in Utah we are still very neighborly) and I tried my hand at pickling and canning for the first time ever.

Oh my YUM! Those were the best pickles I've ever had! Which makes this project a project of love for my whole family - everyone of us LOVED those pickles and wants more.

First we picked our area. Turned it over a few times, raked everything out, turn it over once more to check it. 

Then added in a mix of compost and bunny poop. (We recently added in the bunnies so its not fully mixed into the compost yet.)

After the soil was ready we went to work fixing the cucumber trellis my hubby made for me last year. This time we will be planting them in the front and in the back - we added a string net lattice to help the plants grow up the back wall as well.

Now with the wide frame, built to maximize the amount of cucumbers we get, there is a lot of empty room at the base.

We planted spinach under the frame and will see this year how well it does, so far the spinach in my grow box is great in the spring but dies off in the summer heat. I'm hoping that a later spring planting of spinach here will do better since it will have the shade of the cucumber plants to help keep the sun off of it.

We started the cucumbers off inside and allowed them to grow extra leaves - sometimes this works well and others times they all die. I have back up seeds ready to plant this weekend directly into the ground in case the cold weather kills them off.

Gardening is not an exact science and I don't mind telling you I have back ups for my back ups to ensure a good timely crop that will have a higher yield.
Make sure to have a plan A, B and a C just in case. Weather and time are always working against the gardener.