The Edible Garden by Alys Fowler

Author:Alys Fowler
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781409070832
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

CUCUMBER

Outdoor cucumbers aren’t that attractive. The yellow flowers are jolly, but not a patch on courgettes, and the tough-looking leaves aren’t great, but they will give you cucumber sandwiches, pretty much whatever the weather. I think they’ve slightly fallen by the wayside because of their tough, sometimes prickly, skins, but the flesh tastes so good, and nothing could be simpler to grow.

Choose the right type

Indoor cucumbers are the type you find in the supermarket, thin-skinned, sensitive sorts that need mollycoddling. Outdoor, thick-skinned toughies don’t mind the odd drop in temperature and once they get going they laugh in the face of pests and diseases. These are sometimes referred to as ridge cucumbers as they were traditionally grown on small ridges to improve drainage. They are more sprawlers than climbers and well suited to container growing. Heirlooms look slightly more refined, often palest yellow or green and shaped more like lemons and apples than cucumbers. Some are delicious and some are just curious. Peel the skins of prickly forms to get at the delicious flesh beneath. Yellow heirloom ‘Crystal Apple’ is crisply delicious. ‘Marketmoor’ has good mildew resistance and old school fruit. ‘Kyoto’ produces long, thin Japanese types that are particularly good for cooking – I believe cucumber soup is a wonderful thing.

Gherkins are stubbly little fruits rarely more that 5cm (2in) long. They’re good for pickling, particularly with lots of dill, but equally good raw. Hybrid outdoor forms, ‘American Burpless’ or Japanese varieties, are thinner-skinned, long-fruited but tough enough for very productive outdoor cultivation. They need space as they can grow up to 1½m (about 5ft) tall, and anything I may say about a cucumber not being attractive is forgiven when you have a plant dripping in fruit.

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