What you can achieve with a cucumber greenhouse - cucumber perfection

I looked up to the skies and saw cucumber heaven, literally.  There are ten cucumbers in just this shot, its ridiculous! 

I am green with envy, which is ironic, because my envy is cucumber based. I went out for a lovely day with the other half last week, we had not planned to go to a garden because that is not something he would agree to easily. Having said that he volunteered to go to a farm at the weekend, clearly im rubbing off on him!  But somehow we ended up in Arundel Castle gardens which really are something else.  I would go as far to say its one of the best gardens I have ever been to, I took loads of photos and will share them at some point, but for now its all about the greenhouse.

Twenty cucumbers, to save you counting.  This makes my vegetable growing feel shockingly inferior, beginning to wonder why I bother at all

The greenhouse is also something else.  It is not terribly big, but certainly in the veg section it is stuffed to the rafters, quite literally.  The first section is all exotic plants, fine, but not my thing.  Then is a section with just peppers and cucumbers.  Oh the cucumbers!

How on earth these plants manage to hold all these weighty vegetables without snapping, I don't know

Sometimes going to a garden is really inspiring, seeing plants you don't know, and great combinations and what not.  And sometimes is is downright depressing.  All this week I have been inspecting my little cucumber plants for the teeny tiny baby cucumbers just beginning to form.  I have been thrilled.  I am no more.  This greenhouse had huge cucumber plants climbing right up the walls and across the inside of the roof.  And from the plants hung dozens of fully formed beautiful cucumbers, hanging like large salami sausages, or bats.  I have never seen cucumbers grown like this, but I imagine it is fairly standard practice.

These are not cucumbers, they look more like courgettes to me, which just rubs it in further.  Not just cucumbers but a whole bevy of different vegetables

You might think the heavy fruits would snap the plants, and picking must be a nightmare, couldn't nip out in your slippers and a pair of scissors before work in the morning, thats for sure.
The rest of the building was full of all sorts, shapes, sizes and colours of peppers, it was amazing looking at them all.  Although Im not actually that bothered about peppers, and having said that I have about 12 pepper plants!

And some green chilli peppers, just because.  I don't even like chilli peppers
but still I am envious

It just goes to show what you can achieve with a heated greenhouse and plenty of time, neither of which I have.  But I try my best, and do have about nine cucumber plants so im sure I will be inundated.  But I really want a cucumber greenhouse now, what I would do to be able to spend all day in the garden, amongst the legumes.  Until that day, I will just have to be happy with what I have and keep visiting places that aspire you to greater vegetables.  Thats all lies, im going to sit around and revel in my envy.

And just to put it in context, these are my teeny tiny beauties. So depressing