Sow cucumbers

Home-grown crops will be much tastier than shop-bought produce

Yes, cucumbers are fairly cheap from the supermarket, but they can be watery and thin-skinned. Home-grown ones, on the other hand, are crunchy and full of taste. Along with tomatoes, they’re one of those veg that are just so worth trying to grow, for this reason.

Decide whether you want to grow indoor or outdoor cucumbers – indoor types need a warm greenhouse all season, while outdoor, or ‘ridge’ cucumbers can be transplanted outside in late spring to a sunny spot. It depends on your climate, really, and whether you have the space and right growing tools and conditions for either type. Seed packets, if they’re labelled well, will let you know which are which.

A really great indoor variety is ‘Femspot’ from D.T. Brown, an early-cropping, female variety producing large, long fruits that are resistant to mildew, among other diseases. Sow it now in heat, as per the steps below, and pot on, lowering the temperature to around 15C (59F). When about four true leaves have formed, transplant it into the greenhouse in a growbag or the greenhouse border, watering well.

A classic outdoor variety is ‘Burpless Tasty Green’, with flavoursome, thick-skinned, large and robust fruits. You may want to wait a couple of weeks or so to sow this one as you’ll be planting it out in very late spring. Sow as below, and keep at 21C (70F), potting on before hardening off at the end of May and planting out in its final sunny, sheltered position.