Do Cucumbers and Garlic Get Along?

It started with a question. “Do cucumbers and garlic get along?” The madman said, “Of course, everything gets along with the garlic.” But, I wasn’t so sure, so when I rolled my eyes, he said, “Let’s ask Jamie.”

Who’s Jamie? She happens to be the head of the Focus Garden in Haddam and, in the madman’s eyes, she’s a “knower of all things relevant in the garden world.” As luck would have it, the next day we were part of the crew scheduled to work in the garden. Typical of Jamie, when I asked the question, she reached into her bag of tricks and pulled out a book, Louise Riotte’s Carrots Love Tomatoes. So, while the madman planted his hot peppers in the dedicated bed, I flipped through the book.

Re-purposing An Old Bed

This whole issue popped up because the madman finally revealed the location of the new cucumber bed. He had kept his secret for so long in the hopes that the Striped Cucumber Beetle wouldn’t get wind of his idea. The chosen bed is in the back yard – cucurbits have never been grown there. It has served as a catchall bed for a good many years. It seems that whatever we had too much of went in this bed.

One year, the madman got his hands on a bunch of garlic bulbs and, although he had no idea how to plant, grow or harvest the bulbs, he figured this would be a good place to stick them. This was back when gardening was one big experiment after another. He didn’t harvest the garlic the following year, nor the following, nor the following. And, while the bed became a mecca for potted plants like the madman’s citrus trees, the garlic grew happily around the pots. It grew in such crowded conditions that it couldn’t bulb, but it looked kind of neat so we left it. When we discovered garlic and realized that it wasn’t the stinky, useless bulb our parents disparaged, we had a dedicated garlic bed elsewhere so the crowded garlic remained neglected.

Preparing The Bed In Secret

Last fall, the madman dug up as much of the old garlic as he could find and worked in a nice layer of compost. He knew this would be the new home of his cucumbers, but he didn’t tell anyone – not even me. He figured I had enough on my mind with COVID and the approaching holidays. So, last year, at Halloween, he carefully measured 18” from three sides and planted some fresh garlic.

In reality, it should not have come as a surprise to me that this was where the cucumbers were going. When he finally told me, I simply asked, “Do cucumbers like garlic.” We have always played around with companion planting – things like tomatoes and basil grow well together, but the book Jamie handed me opened our eyes to a world of possibilities. We now have our own copy.

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Everything Except Peas And Beans

So, what the madman discovered was that garlic does not play well with peas and beans. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Through his reading, he learned that radishes repel the striped cucumber beetle. How delightful, that’s why he moved the cucumbers in the first place – he was tired of fighting the cucumber beetles.

He also learned that Okra and Cucumbers thrive in the same conditions. What a nice way to dress up this bed. Okra is a warm weather vegetable with beautiful mallow flowers that attract a lot of pollinators. And, if picked young, the okra pods are quite delicious. But, then he discovered that Okra is a good companion plant for peppers and eggplants. So, guess what else is going in the bed? I hope he leaves enough room to get in to pick his cucumbers because, after radishes, they are my favorite vegetable. He assures me he has.

Poor Cucumber Harvest

In recent gardening seasons, our cucumber harvests have become spotty at best. We start with a nice row of plants and the early harvest is great. But, then it seems to go downhill fast. He is always quick to blame the striped Cucumber Beetle for introducing wilt that kills the plant – after all, those beetles are a vector for disease.

But, I think that he is beginning to share some of the blame. He hasn’t moved the cucumber bed in years and, for this crop, rotation is extremely important since the Striped Cucumber Beetle overwinters in the soil. 2021 is a rotation year.

Cucumber Bed Takes Shape

So here’s how the new cucumber bed has shaped up. Cucumbers are planted along the edge of three sides, with the south side being left open. He planted radishes along with the cukes, but told me they are only for beetle control and I can’t have any. In the center of the bed, he dug a trench and filled it with ground-up leaves. To the East of the trench, he planted Okra seeds and Eggplants. To the West of the trench, he planted Okra seeds and Peppers. During the summer, the trench will serve as an irrigation channel because irrigation is the key to success. Cucumbers need a lot of water, something that has not been falling from the sky as of late, and, if you recall, watering more was one of the madman’s resolutions.

The only other thing he plans to add to this bed is dill which is a good companion plant for cucumbers. The umbrel-like flowers are especially attractive to honeybees which the madman wants for pollinating the cucumbers. Between the okra and dill, every bee in town should be visiting.

Crazy Cucumber Idea

One bit of his research causes me some concern – he read that thin strips of cucumber will repel ants and the madman hates ants.

To me, that’s a crazy idea. Speaking of crazy, how about this weather we’re having. When we wrote the last blog, we had our pellet stoves running and sat with blankets over our shoulders. For this blog, we are complaining about the heat – five days of 90˚+ followed by the normal temperatures we and our plants like. We did switch back to lemonade.

Dolores is happy.