I really enjoyed growing the Çengelköy cucumber this last season. It was mild, slightly sweet, thin-skinned and quite good. Somewhat like the Beit Alpha, the Çengelköy has a wonderful flavor and, according to citizens of the Turkish town, it is a perfect breakfast cucumber.         The Çengelköy fruit grew on medium-length vines and produced a nice crop of ..read more

When one thinks of the word ‘bushy’ they may think of a plant that is shorter or more compact. At least that is what I think of if someone says the word ‘bushy’ to me. However, that was not my experience with the Bushy Cucumber.        While not a cucumber variety that wants to take over the world, like the Yamato or the Gagon, Bushy is not exactly the most ..read more

One of my very favorite regular cucumber varieties that I grew this last year was the Bush Crop. An extremely compact variety, I would even call this variety a ‘dwarf’ cucumber, but I hesitate to call it a ‘bush’ cucumber.While most of the agricultural industry would characterize short varieties as ‘bush’, they are not always like a bush. A bush vining plant would produce a lot of vines from a ..read more

I decided to try out the Bono because it was a hard-to-find cucumber variety. The fruit grew very well, without any issues. The primary concern that the vines encountered while growing was insufficient light due to nearby plants that were growing next to the Bono. This delayed fruiting only slightly, and by the end of the season, the Bono was doing just as well as all the other varieties near it ..read more

While the origin of the plant species Cucumis melo is most often associated with Africa, there are also Cucumis melo varieties that are Asian in origin. Less domesticated than the African melos, the Cucumis melo variety conomon is often used in cooking or pickling due to its tendency to produce bitter fruit. Often referred to as an Asian pickling melon, these fruit tends to thrive in warm humid ..read more

After growing out an unknown carosello cucumber variety, I decided to try out a Mezzo Lungo Polignano carosello variety in the 1-yard grape bin. This variety was one that I had tried out previously in 2021. In fact, I labeled the specific population, which was provided to me by an Italian gentleman named Angelo, for a future Mezzo Lungo Polignano trial.         &nbsp ..read more

One of the things I like doing when gardening is giving cucumber varieties a second chance. Back in 2018 I grew an unknown carosello cucumber variety. It was oval and ranged from being very dark to quite light. I didn’t know what to think of it then, but I do remember it tasting pretty good. With all that in mind, I decided to give the variety another try at a new plot that I had set up in a ..read more

I have given my younger daughter plenty of choices concerning what to grow in the girl’s garden plot. We usually grow tomatoes and potatoes as well as some sweet potatoes. She likes sweet peppers, so we almost always include some of those. Additionally, we generally try to do something new each year. This year we tried some butterfly attractants, such as Milkweed and Pipevine.    & ..read more

2023 provided me with much joy and excitement, but also much work and disappointment. With gardening, as with life, it seems that joy in one area is somehow interconnected with sorrow in another. In addition to constant pest pressure and disease, I experienced a lot of disappointment with growers this year. Early in 2023, I had asked a group of market growers if any of them was willing to grow ..read more

After many years of looking, I was finally able to purchase some Sonata biofungicide for my garden in 2023. This specific fungicide is meant to specifically go after fungus-related diseases such as Downy and Powdery Mildew. It did a fabulous job and I was able to keep my plants relatively free of disease for 4-6 weeks longer than I would have been able to do otherwise. These results were much ..read more