They will all grow fine together, but will cross polinate. This won't do anything to the cukes this year, but if you saved the seed and grew it out next year, it would be a crap shoot as far as what you would get.

You can expect cukes soon as long as they are being pollinated. If you don't have lots of bee activity or other pollinating insect activity, then you will need to pollinate by hand. Not hard to do, and guarantees cukes.

You can search the forum, or google, for how to do it if you are unsure. The topic comes up a lot, so there are several threads on it.

I like to plant a lot of flowering plants in and around my veggie garden to attract the pollinators and other beneficial bugs. It's good to try to plant lots of different types of flowers that bloom at different times, so something in your garden is always in bloom. Creating a habitat for mason bees ( the big bumble bees) is easy to do as well, but they will only stick around if there is food for them.

Also, as your cukes start to grow, make sure you keep them picked regularly...if you let one or two ripen fully on the plant, the whole plant will shut down because it senses that its life cycle is complete and no longer needs to produce fruits...so pick em while they are green. Cukes are prolific producers, so you will have more then you know what to do with out of the plants you have there provided they get pollinated :)

Do you still have as many plants as the image shows?

If so, you may have a problem keeping up with their water needs.

You might consider snipping some off at the base to ensure the health of others.

@howelbama thanks for the help...I see bees but not to many. I will research on how to self pollinate. I will use the info and save it to the brain. Thanks again.

@jean001a yes that's the same amount. The soil goes straight into soil where grass used to be and tons of soil behind it for roots to grow. I run soaker hose for a few hours and seems to be doing welll. I also extra water with watering can. What exactly does snipping some off at the base mean?

I plant cucs thickly like that because of the bacterial wilt. I figure that the more plants I have, the better chances one or two might escape the plague.

Jean just means to cut some of them right out at the base to thin the herd a bit..do that rather than pulling them up so you don't damage the neighboring roots. I agree with her that you probably should thin them a bit, they will probably be in heavy competition for nutrients and water at the density they are planted now. You will still have tons of cukes if you take out three or four plants.

Regarding watering, don't do it every day, only when they need it. I wait until a good two inches of soil on top is dry before watering... Just stick your finger in the dirt daily in a few spots, to about the second knuckle or so. If it is still moist at that depth you should not need to water. Too much water will lead to nutrient uptake issues, especially with calcium, and can lead to root rot.

In your onion post I think you mentioned you are using miracle grow. I'm not gunk ho organic, but in raised beds and in ground gardening, I prefer to use natural fertilizers. Over time it will build up the health of your soil and encourage good microbial soil life... Year after year, you will have to fertilize less and less. The miracle grow on the other hand has the opposite effect, the salts it contains kills the life in your soil, so you have to use more and more of it, and lack of good microbial life in the soil leads to more disease and insect probs with the plants growing int it, so you have to start to resort to chemical controls for that as well.

Miracle grow has it's place though, and works very well for plants in containers where soil life is not a concern.

I like espomas product line for natural ferts because they also contain a lot of good beneficial fungi and bacteria for the soil.

Homemade compost and worm compost are also great amendments to build up your soil.

Sorry for the extended post, just babbling a bit lol...

Ok tomorrow I will take out one of each different cucumbers. The soaker hose that waters my cucumber box also is connected to the same system so I do the finger test in all boxes and if its moist I don't water. My soils drains very well. Well im new to gardening but it seems that way. It's been super hot in my area with very little rain so im watering every 24-32 hours lately.

About the miracle grow...I was not planning to use any fertilizer at all but someone one here posted that my plants looked low on nitrogen and needed some fast. I only used it twice so far two weeks apart from eachother and seemed to help. I have been thinking on how to make my soil better and now I know miracle grow isn't going to help. So I will stop using that. You mentioned natural fertilizer? Esponas product? What's that and hoe does it work?

I don't mind the extra blabbing ...it helps me become a better gardener

Sounds like you're onthe right track with the watering. I think i was the one that suggested fertilizing the onions...sorry I should have clarified more on what to use. Using the miracle grow sparingly should not cause a prob, it's regular usage that will cause problems over time. Espoma is a fertilizer company that makes a wide line of organic fertilizers... Garden tone and tomato tone are two of my favorites. They are made with composted chicken manure and other natural ingredients, but they also add lots of beneficial bacteria and fungus that helps to build up the microbial "herd" in your soil, which helps lead to strong healthy roots that are better able to use the nutrients available in the soil. They are not as quick acting as synthetics like miracle grow, so they are almost impossible to "burn" yor plants with..though I would still recommend following the instructions on e package. But it's not like overdoing it with chemical ferts, that can kil a plant in hours...

Adding compost to your soil whenever you can is one of the best things you can do to improve its health... Preferably your own homemade compost, that way you know exactly what you put in it.. If you buy compost, just make sure you get it from a trusted source, the last thing you want to do is add compost that was made with plant and yard debri from yards hat have been sprayed with herbicides and such. Some herbicides can persist for years even through composting, and if you put that compost in your garden unknowingly, you can wind up with issues...like plants dying and you wondering why.

I mulch with straw because it is cheap, breaks down easily and helps to control weeds, conserve moisture, and adds to your soils "tilth" over time.

Rotted leaves and pine needles are also good inexpensive mulching choices.

Try to stay away from using wood chips as mulch.

For the onions, if you need a quick nitrogen fix, blood meal is a good fast acting source.

Keep us posted on how everything is growing, and don't hesitate to ask if you have any more questions or problems.

Ok I am going to try and find some garden tone. Just curious is it used the same way as miracle grow. In my watering can? When it comes to composting..a old timer from mmy neighborhood said he uses cow manure tilled in a month before he plants..so mabye before next season I will try that. Another good gardener across the alley told me not to use any mulch. Not sure why but I was planning on trying a few plants and see if they do any better. Sorry for the the questions im just in way over my head for my first time ever gardening. Here's my list of what I have planted. Just did a count on vegetables in garden...

Peppers: Bell- 3 red, 3 yellow, 2 green, 2 orange. 3 hot jalapeno, 1 mild jalapeno, 2 hot banana, 1 garden salsa, 1 Serrano chili, 1 habanero, 1 worldest hottest hybrid habanero.

Tamatoes: 4 better bush, 3 husky cherry red, 1 super sweet 100, 1 early girl 50, 1 Roma, 1 lemon boy, 2 big beef, and few 8 kumato from seed.

Mixed box: 2 Japanese eggplant, 2 mini eggplant. 2 summer squash, 1 zuchinni. 15 red/ green onion. 2 cantaloupe's, tons of carrots. Herbs: 4 flat Italian parsley, 2 curled. 2 sweet Basil, 1 Thai Basil, 1 Greek Basil. 3 Rosemary, lemon and Greek thyme. 3 oreganl, 1 Mexican taragon.

Cucumbers: 4 straight 8s, 4 Boston pickling...4 burpless. Then on the fence line 3 jalapeno 2 cherry tomato grapes and a cucumber. Plus some.buckets with stuff

So for the remainder of season will the organic fertilizer do the job without added compost or mulch.?

The espoma products are granular. You can apply them a few different ways. At planting time, you mix some in to the hole where the plant will go. During the season, you apply them by either "side dressing" which is simply applying a line of the fertilizer on the soil 6 inches or so away from the stem of the plants. You can also broadcast it which is simply spreading it out on the soil surface. It's best to wet the soil a bit first, then put the fertilizer down, and then water it in. I usually fertilize every two to three weeks or so throughout the growing season. Just follow the amounts recommended on the package, but as I said earlier it is hard to overdo it, so don't worry about being super precise with th amounts.

You can search side dress and top dress in these forums and I think there are some good how tos on those methods.

Cow manure is good, however it is high in N so it can burn young plants. If you try it, it,s best to make sure it is well composted (rotted) manure and not fresh stuff. I do usually add some composted cow manure to my beds at the beginning of the season, along with some yard compost out of my compost bin. Adding it a month before planting is good advise to avoid any "burning" especially if it's fresh manure.

I'm not sure why your neighbor said not to mulch. I guess the downside to mulching is that it can creat a place for bugs to hide, and it does make applying fertilizer a little more difficult. However, it helps hold a lot of moisture in the soil during really hot periods. Maybe your neighbor was referring to wood chip mulch...which that I agree with not using.

For this season, you should be just fine using some organic ferts and no mulch... Just watch out during really hot stretches that you stay on top of the watering. If your plants are looking a little less green than they should, you may need to occasionally break out the miracle grow for a quick fix.

Just don't get discouraged, gardening is definetly a test of patience at times lol... I'm battling groundhogs currently, so if it's not one thing it's another, but to me it's all worth it in the end. And definetly get opinions and advice from as many sources as possible, because there are a million different approaches and no single one is right, so you kind of just have to find what works for you.

Thank you very much for the help. I will be posting pictures and questions.throughout the rest of the season. Im not the type of person to let things fail, I tend to over think everything that I do. With gardening its probably a good thing. Over the next week or so I will be buying the organic fert and start getting used to using it. Here is a pic of the organic red mulch I baught. I believe it is wood chip mulch.

{{gwi:77519}}

I think he told me it carries a lot of bugs like you said. So I will be researching more ways to mulch because the top of my soil dries really fast. The soil is mixed with wood chips and peer moss and possibly other things. So I think a lot of the wood chips and heavier dryer stuff stayed on top and the good stuff is under. So in a way I think it sort of acts as muclh cuz the top has a lot of the wood chips on it. Possibly from rain washing down the lighter soil. Im not sure

but will bbe working on that this week too.

The cow manure I wont worry about till the season. So I will keep ya posted on the progress and im sure ask plenty more questions. Thanks again for all the advice and help.

@ChicagoDeli Nice Parsley. Mine isn't growing that big yet. It's still smallish, but it's slowly growing.

Btw, awesome job on the overall garden structure... Very professional job, looks great, should prevent any and all critter problems, and will last for years to come!

I wouldn't use wood chips in the veggie garden....I'd try to remove those.

A mulch of last falls leaves would be good. If you have any burdock or borage or large leaf thing that you may not want, I'd pic those leaves and put them down as a mulch.

What's a type that I could just buy.?

@howelbama thank you. It has been months and months of hard work
but is finally paying off.
if you look under great lakes section.
I posted all the pictures From start too finish.
its under something like first garden pictures

Chicago, I'll have to take a look.

I use straw mulch in my garden. It's about 5 bucks a bail (which goes a long way) at my local mom n pop nursery. I'm sure there are suppliers nearby you that will have it. I also use some pine needles for mulch from time to time because I have several pine trees inthe back that drop needles all over my yard, and if it's free, it's for me lol...

Straw and leaves are nice to use because they breakdown pretty quick and help condition the soil.

Straw sounds like my best bet.
Im assuming you need to move it every few weeks to fertilizer
And how longs it take to break down before I need more?
Should I mulch all boxes?
if u look under VEGETABLES forum I
posted recent pictures.
Sorry for all the questions im trying to absorb
As much info as possible so that my first year is successful
and my 2 nd year is even better.

I would say experiment and mulch some and not others and see what kind of difference it makes for you. If your not running into a lot of weed issues and the soil is retaining moisture well, then it's not as important. How often really depends on how wet it is getting. It will break down quicker if it gets rained on a lot, you may find you will need to add some every few weeks. Just make sure you keep it a few inches back from the base of the plants so it does not cause any stem rot.

Yeah, you will need to pull it back a bit to apply your fertilizer, which is a bit of a pain. Sometimes I get lazy and just broadcast my fert into the mulch and water heavily, hoping it gets down into the soil, but pulling it back is definetly more effective.

Its exciting learning new things.
I feel like I could never spend enough
Time in garden.
There is always something to do.
My Back and hurt groin are not agreeing though.
this forum is so helpful along with the kind hep
from everyones who helped.
im sure we will talk about something new tomorrow
thanks again.