The easy, step-by-step guide to growing cucumbers

Cucumbers may need a lot of attention, but their yield and refreshing taste have made them a gardener's favourite. This is the easy way to grow cucumbers, from planting to harvest.

• There are large, narrow, slicing cucumbers for eating fresh from the garden, and the short, fat, pickling types. You can pickle slicing kinds and eat the pickling ones raw.
• Cucumbers are vulnerable to scab, mosaic, and downy and powdery mildew. Horticulturists have bred varieties that are resistant to these diseases.
• Popular slicing varieties include 'Sweet Success' and 'Marketmore 76.'
• Recommended pickling cucumbers are 'Eureka' and 'Cool Breeze.' For a "burpless" type, try 'Diva.'

• A cucumber plant is a vine that, when grown on the ground, will sprawl for over two metres (six and a half feet) in length.
• If your garden is too small to accommodate long, trailing vines, you can train cucumbers to climb up a fence or a trellis.
• Besides saving valuable ground space, trellis-trained plants often produce much better formed cucumbers.
• Cucumbers can be grown in rows or in hills, which are clusters of two or three plants.
• Rows should be spaced two metres (six and a half feet) apart. Make hills 30 centimetres (12 inches) in diameter, spacing the perimeters two metres (six and a half feet) apart.

• Cucumbers need fertile soil with good drainage.
• Dig up the earth to a depth of about 30 centimetres (12 inches).
• Work in one wheelbarrowful of well-rotted manure or rich compost for every three metres (ten feet) of row, or for every two hills you plan to plant.

• In most areas, cucumber seeds are sown indoors in individual peat pots two to three weeks before the last expected frost.
• Sow three seeds one centimetre (half an inch) deep in each pot.
• When the seedlings are about four centimetres (two inches) tall, thin them to the strongest one.

• Seedlings will be ready for transplanting outdoors in three or four weeks.
• Space them 30 centimetres (12 inches) apart in rows. Or, place two or three seedlings in the centre of each hill.
• Young cucumber plants are often set back by spring rain and cold. You can protect them against the elements by covering them with translucent caps, available at most garden centres.

• Cucumbers need moisture. Water the soil frequently.
• Spread a thick layer of organic mulch, or lay a black plastic mulch, before planting to help the soil remain damp.
• A plastic mulch also warms the soil for early plantings.

• Slicing-type cucumbers are fully ripe when they get to be 15 to 20 centimetres (six to eight inches) long.
• Pickling cucumbers are ready when they're four to eight centimetres (two to three inches) long.
• Strip your vines of mature cucumbers every two or three days, or the plants will stop producing.
• Pick the cucumbers while they're still dark green.
• To pick the fruit off the vine, hold the vine firmly in one hand while you twist off the cucumber with the other hand.

Cucumbers need a lot of attention, but given the proper care, they're very prolific. And even though the plants require warm weather, they mature so quickly that they can be grown almost everywhere.