How to Use Cucumber as a Companion Plant

Cucumbers can be trellised with companion plants at their feet to save garden space.

In companion planting, plants are grown together to save space or provide benefits to one or both plants. Cucumbers 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

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. Plant corn near cucumbers and allow the vines to clamber up the growing stalks. The cucumbers shade out weeds at the base of the corn and are prickly enough to keep away some corn predators, like raccoons.

3. Interplant radishes with your cucumbers. The radishes help deter cucumber beetles, while the cucumbers ward off root maggots for the radishes.

4. Seed nasturtium flowers around your cucumbers to improve their flavor.

5. Keep cucumbers away from Don't plant cucumbers near potatoes or aromatic herbs, as they inhibit the growth of potatoes, according to Cornell University Cooperative Extension.

6. Plant bush cucumbers at the base of a pea trellis. The cucumbers benefit from both the nitrogen the peas pull into the soil, and the shade they provide.

References

• Garden's Ablaze: Companion Planting
• University of Illinois Extension: Cucumbers
• North Carolina State University Extension: Companion Planting
• Cornell University Extension: Companion Planting