Summer of discontent? Not as far as cucumbers go

I was reading the Wall Street Journal this morning, an article written by Joe Queenan on The Summer of Our Discontent and the following quote best describes my 09 summer "The summer of 2009 was the summer when nothing positive happened." and this one best describes my experience with regards to growing tomato and zuchini crops "If there is a less scintillating summer on record, it's hard to remember it.....The tomatoes were uneatable"

I had planted my zuchini plants in the wrong spot(the whole summer I only had 2-3 small zuchini at best). As for the tomato crop, I did have a lot of small tomatoes, the Stupice variety, but they were mostly been eaten by the small birds. For the big heirloom tomatoes, the squirels made off with most of all the big ones, until I found a way to deter them. But by then it was too late, the summer is nearly over.

However, the cucumber plants were prolific. I had on average 4-5 large cucumbers everyday. I had success with all types of cucumbers: European/English, Persian, Japanese, and American.

This is a picture of my earliest cucumber patch. I think I may have about 10 plants of different varieties here.


A close-up picture of the cucumber plants. I love cucumber plants, the leaves are attractive looking when they are young and growing.


This is what I have now, hopefully it will last until the end of September.


Fresh picked cucumbers today. Asian cucumbers on the left side, a Persian cucumber is on the far right, and the middle cucumbers are possibly the American type. They were 10-cent seed packages from Rite Aid.