i know - weird question g

i love lebanese cucumbers, but they've never cropped well for me. last year
i spent every morning hand-fertilising the flowers (which gave a much better
result than previous years, but still fairly unimpressive i suspect).

this year, i had been ignoring them in the pre-xmas kerfuffle, only to
discover they're cropping a treat without me!! (as are the pumpkins next to
them, which have about as many baby pumpkins already as we harvested
entirely last year for the whole season).

my first idea is that we've many, many bees & bugs now. i planted "bug
flowers" such as queen anne's lace & whatnot to bring more bugs, which seems
to be working. the bees were active all winter, too & are now present in
large numbers, yay. still, last year we seemed to have plenty of bees
anyway, but not many cucumbers. (?)

i'm growing them up a fence this time, which i believe is recommended. does
anyone know what the difference might be with growing them upwards instead
of along the ground? (more bee action?)

the last thing is i spread compost all over the cucurbit bed about 10-20cm
deep before transplanting. iirc, last year they were in dirt with manure in
it. have they a particular passionate love for compost? my compost is still
mostly pretty lumpy & weird, but i guess it does the job!

the armenian cucumbers have only just begun to flower. interestingly, these
did quite well last year, probably because i don't like them very much g.
dh really likes them though, so one of us was happy. i look forward to
finding out if the armenians crop better this year, too. i'm letting those
go on the ground though (i just don't have that many fences to indulge
myself with ;-)

look forward to your thoughts in my quest for the perfect lebanese cucumber
plant!
kylie