Owen Pidgeon's top cucumbers to grow in Canberra

Cucumbers are a refreshing salad vegetable that can be grown easily in the home garden, with a little care and plenty of regular watering. Cold cucumber soup is a real treat for a summer's evening. Gherkins (referred to as "cornichons" in some countries) are immature cucumbers that are preserved by pickling in vinegar.

Cucumbers do best in a rich and fertile garden bed that is well drained. They will grow quickly in the summer months and produce a good volume of fruit for quite some time, providing that they are regularly watered and not allowed to dry out.

We have one little granddaughter that likes to eat whole chunks of cucumber and another who has taken to enjoying cucumber sandwiches. So there is high demand within our own family for a good, regular supply of sweet and tender cucumbers over summer.

You can get a sense of where different vegetables came from historically from the names of some varieties. Lebanese and Armenian cucumbers give the clue to how this fruit came originally from central Asia, close to the foothills of the Himalayas. There are records of cucumbers being grown in Mesopotamia some 4000 years ago and in China 3000 years ago. The Romans loved them and Pliny records that to supply the daily demands of Emperor Tiberius they would even grow them out of season in baskets and in special carts that were moved each day to follow the sun and inside overnight.

Seeds were taken by early explorers around the globe. Christopher Columbus took cucumber seeds to the New World, spreading quickly throughout the Spanish American empire as they thrived in hot climates with plenty of water. The first chaplain to the New South Wales colony, Rev Richard Johnson, was one of the first to grow cucumbers in the penal colony of Sydney and local varieties have been bred here in Australia.

Most varieties will produce a crop in 7-8 weeks so it is one of the quick summer vegetables to grow. As the plants are very frost tender, you will need to have planted out the last seeds by early February, to ensure that cropping has begun before the cold nights set in during April.

The Lebanese cucumber tells us the story of multiculturalism, as is has become very well-known in recent decades across Australia. It is a smooth-skinned and tender cucumber, so it is often eaten whole when picked still young. Muncher Burpless is a slightly larger cucumber. It is quite prolific and has a smooth, thin skin. Straight Eight is a another good, smooth-skinned, dark green variety. It produces a crisp, fine-grained fruit with a mild sweet flavour. It grows quickly and produces a fine, long-life crop, especially if grown on a trellis.

The Syrian cucumber is wide and oblong shaped in appearance, with a yellow skin. It is best eaten fresh while still young and the skin colour is light. Gympie Gold is a very productive, disease-resistant Australian oblong variety that will hold its crispness well after harvest.

The Armenian cucumber is one of the delightful long varieties of cucumbers. It can grow to a very long 90cm and the skin is not hard so you would usually leave it unpeeled when slicing. The Chinese Snake cucumber is a long, green skinned variety with a distinctive curve. It will bear you a good crop.

There are several apple type cucumbers that are worthwhile growing. The Crystal Apple is a crunchy, sweet variety that produces well. The lemon cucumber is a prolific apple type variety with a light yellow skin, first grown in 1894. It produces for a long time and can survive lower watering regimes than most other varieties.

Where you have limited space, plant the disease resistant variety called Spacemaster. It produces a slender looking, dark green fruit about 20 centimetres in length with a crisp, sweet flavour. It can be pickled when picked young. The other regular gherkin type is named the National Pickling Gherkin.

To grow a good crop of cucumbers, build up your garden bed with plenty of well-matured compost to a depth of 40-50 centimetres. Plant seeds or seedlings in clusters of three in mounds, allowing one metre between each cluster. Alternatively, plant in rows leaving 35-40 centimetres between plants and 80 centimetres between rows.

Vines can be left to spread and trail across the garden. However, you can secure better fruiting and reduce the risk of fungal attacks on the plants by setting up a support trellis. This will provide better air circulation as the leaves of several plants can form quite dense mats.

Greek cucumber, tomato and red onion salad

2 medium cucumbers
4 large tomatoes
1 red spanish onion
2 green capsicums
3 garlic cloves
2 tbs fresh parsley
½ cup Kalamata olives
150g crumbed feta cheese
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp red wine vinegar

Thinly slice the cucumbers and onion. Cut the tomatoes into wedges and coarsely chop the capsicums. Finely chop the garlic and fresh parsley. Place all these ingredients into a large bowl. Add in the olives and feta cheese then drizzle the olive oil and vinegar over the salad and toss well.

Tzatziki (Greek cucumber and yoghurt salad)

3 medium cucumbers
½ tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, crushed
500g Greek yoghurt
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
juice 1 lemon
1 tsp white vinegar
⅓ cup mint, finely chopped

Peel and grate the cucumbers and sprinkle with salt. Place in the refrigerator for at least one hour then wrap in a tea towel and press out all excess liquid. Combine the yoghurt, crushed garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar into a large bowl and mix well. Add in the cucumber and mint. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for two to three hours before serving.

This week in the garden

* Plant out a selection of loose leaf lettuces, mizuna and rocket to keep up a good supply of salad mix.

* Plant silverbeet, bush beans and Chinese cabbage seeds straight into garden beds that have become vacant.

* Begin your planting of seeds for winter vegetables to get them established while the temperatures remain well up.

* Water deeply every few evenings to help the root systems of your plants to spread out and "forage" well. Mulch all vegetables well to limit water loss and keep the ground temperatures down.

* Remove any apples than have evidence of codling moth infestation. Collect up any fallen apples and dispose of them. A good clean-up now will help greatly with producing a mature crop of good fruit.

Owen Pidgeon runs the Loriendale Organic Orchard near Hall.