How to Use Cucumber as a Companion Plant

Cucumbers make a wonderful addition to your garden, and they get along with many other common vegetable garden plants. You can use cucumbers throughout the garden to help control some weeds, too. Read on to learn how to use cucumbers as companion plants.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Cucumber seedlings or seeds
• A garden or planting area

1. Sow cucumber seeds into warm soil when the garden warms up after spring. You should space your plants about 12 inches apart. The soil should be moist, so you need to water lightly but often. If you don't have enough room for cucumber vines, grow them on vertical trellises to save space.

2. Know that cucumbers do very well when you plant them near cabbage, beans peas, corn, broccoli or onions. Plant them near radishes to keep away root maggots. They also do well with lettuce, celery and Chinese cabbage.

3. Don't plant cucumbers near potatoes or aromatic herbs.

4. Cucumbers like full sun and very well-drained soil. They need a lot of fertilizer; you should give them fish emulsion about once a month. You should also pick your cucumbers often, because this encourages the vines to produce more fruit.