Keep ‘Em Coming: Succession Planting Cucumbers and Beans So You’re Not Drowning in July and Starving in August

Last July I picked 14 cucumbers in four days. Four days. My daughters refused to eat any more cucumber slices, my wife was tired of cucumber water, and I ended up leaving a bag on a neighbor’s porch like some kind of produce bandit. Then by mid-August, nothing. The plants had burned out and I was buying cucumbers at QFC like a person who doesn’t have a garden.

That was the year I finally got serious about succession planting these two. Took me longer than I’d like to admit.

Why Cucumbers and Beans Specifically

Most warm-season crops you can get away with one planting. Tomatoes produce for months, squash just keeps going whether you want it to or not. But cucumbers and beans are sprinters. They go hard, peak fast, and then they’re done. A single direct sow of either one gives you maybe three to four weeks of real production before the plants start looking rough and the harvest tapers off.

Which, if you think about it, is basically the garden equivalent of ordering one taco.

The Simple Version of What I Do Now

For cucumbers, I do three sowings total. First one went in the second week of May, after our last frost window, when soil temps were holding around 62 degrees. Second sowing was the first week of June, which for most of us in Redmond is right around now. Third one I’ll do around July 4th, give or take.

That third sowing is the one I used to skip because it felt late. It’s not late. Cucumbers need about 55 to 65 days to first harvest depending on variety, and even a July 4th start gets you picking in early September. Here in zone 8b that’s still warm and dry. Don’t skip the third one.

Beans are even easier. I sow bush beans every three weeks from late May through mid-July. That’s it. They germinate fast, about a week at 70 degrees, they don’t need transplanting, and a $2.49 packet of Provider bush beans from the Bi-Mart on NE 124th covers two or three sowings easy.

Direct Sow Only, Please

I tried starting cucumbers in yogurt cups indoors once. They got leggy, they hated being transplanted, and two of them just gave up entirely. Cucumbers don’t like root disturbance. Beans really don’t like root disturbance. Both of these want to go straight in the ground, full stop.

Poke a hole about an inch deep with your finger, drop two seeds in, cover it, done. I thin to one plant per spot once they’re a few inches tall. Yes, thinning feels mean. Do it anyway.

Spacing Your Plantings So They Don’t All Hit at Once

The whole point falls apart if your second sowing goes in three days after the first. I aim for a minimum of two weeks between cucumber sowings, three weeks between bean sowings. Cucumbers take longer to mature so they need a little more gap.

I mark it on the paper calendar we have on the fridge. Because if I don’t write it down I will absolutely forget. My oldest daughter has started adding little drawings of cucumbers next to my planting dates, which helps honestly, even if it is slightly humiliating to need the reminder from a nine-year-old.

Varieties Worth Knowing

For cucumbers, Spacemaster is my go-to. It’s compact enough for my raised beds and consistently around $1.89 a packet at Fred Meyer. Marketmore 76 is good too and usually even cheaper. For beans, Provider is basically bulletproof in PNW conditions and handles our cool wet springs better than most. I’ve had Blue Lake 274 fail to germinate in a cold snap. Provider just shrugs and grows.

What You’re Actually Getting Out of This

Three cucumber sowings and three or four bean sowings takes you from that frantic two-week glut situation to a steady trickle from roughly late July through mid-October. That’s not nothing. That’s actually the whole point of having a garden instead of just buying a bag of cucumbers once in the summer.

And you won’t have to leave mystery bags of vegetables on anyone’s porch. Although honestly my neighbor seemed fine with it.

Anyway. The seeds are cheap, the spacing is low effort, and the payoff is real. You’ve got time right now for that second cucumber sowing and your first or second round of beans. Get them in the ground this week.

I bean meaning to tell you this for years. (Sorry. Had to.)

Photo by Kelly Neil on Unsplash