A Friend Told Me How Cucumbers Are Grown in Iceland — I Tried It Myself, and It Turned Out to Be Incredibly Convenient

Here’s a clever method that can save both time and effort in the garden.

Another demanding gardening season is about to begin. Just when it feels like everything has finally been planted, transplanted, fertilized, and pruned, something else always comes up and adds even more work.

Last year, one of the biggest unfinished projects was a new greenhouse for cucumbers, and a lot of time went into getting it done properly.

There was a good reason for that. In many places, strong winds and storms have become more common year after year, so any greenhouse needs to be built as solidly as possible. Lightweight greenhouse structures can be blown away surprisingly easily, sometimes after only a single severe storm. That is why it makes sense to build one carefully from the start.

The cucumber beds in this new greenhouse were set up using an Icelandic-style method. The idea came from a traveler who had spent time there and described how Icelanders grow vegetables in their greenhouses.

Iceland sits close to the Arctic, yet its climate is not as brutally severe as many people imagine. Winter temperatures do not always plunge to extremes, but summers are also cool and short. That makes greenhouses essential for producing quality vegetables and fresh greens.

In Iceland, many greenhouses are heated using geothermal energy from volcanic activity and hot springs. Obviously, most gardeners elsewhere do not have access to anything like that. But the heating system was not the most interesting part of the method.

What stood out most was the way cucumbers were supported.

In many places, cucumbers are traditionally tied up by hand. Some people use stakes, others build wooden frames, and some improvise with rope or strips of fabric.

But in Icelandic greenhouses, tomatoes and cucumbers are often not tied individually at all.

Instead, the beds are built high, and a sturdy mesh is stretched above them. As soon as the young cucumber plants begin sending out tendrils, they catch onto the mesh on their own and start climbing.

Before long, all the greenery is gathered neatly into the netting, while the cucumbers hang down along the sides. There is no need to tie each plant by hand. The method saves a great deal of time and space, and it also looks much cleaner than a setup made with string or scraps of fabric. Once the growing season is over, the dried vines can simply be cut away and removed from the mesh quickly and easily.

After hearing about this method, it was hard not to try it.

Building the structure took the better part of a day, but it was worth it. Since there was no access to any specialized “Icelandic-style” mesh, an ordinary plastic garden net was used instead. That turned out to be a practical solution, since plastic mesh does not rot and does not rust.

Another useful idea borrowed from the same method is overhead irrigation. The plan is simple: install a watering system above the cucumber bed so that, if everything works properly, watering can be done just by turning on the tap. No dragging hoses around by hand.

For anyone growing cucumbers in a greenhouse, this approach is worth considering. It is simple, efficient, saves labor, and keeps the whole setup neat and organized.