Your Cucumber’s Worst Enemies

What not to plant with cucumbers in your vegetable garden.

The cucumber is an amiable presence in the garden, not out to offend anyone. Yet, for one reason or another, a few plants should not become its neighbor. When designing your cucumber patch, avoid planting the following:

Sage

Gardeners agree on this one: cucumber and sage do not get along in the garden. The reason seems to be that sage has a powerful scent, and its intense aroma can affect the flavor of your cukes. On the other hand, dill is a friendly herb to cucumber, so rely on it for your herb companion garden plant.

Potato

You might think that a tuber such as the potato would be a good friend to an aboveground vine such as cucumber, but these two plants compete for the same nutrients in the soil and tend to diminish one another instead of helping. A better root vegetable for cucumber is radish.

Squash & Melon

Cucumber is a cousin of squash and melon. Because they are all from the same family, you probably do not want to plant them together, especially not for more than one season in the same garden spot. Like the potato, they all vie for the same nutrients in the soil and will quickly exhaust it.

Rue

So useful for repelling garden pests, rue does not make a good neighbor to many vegetable crops. Another strongly scented herb that can affect the flavor of cucumbers, it is best kept away from this crop.