Trellis EVERYTHING

Cucumbers, climbing the fence

Watermelon trellis

Cantelope trellis

Watermelon trellis path


Ya, I know it may look like I'm trying to build a playground for my garden, but I have to say I now swear by trellises. As you can see from the second and last pic in this post, my watermelons have taken to the trellis like crazy. I only put this up on Friday and the vines are climbing it like mad now. The trellises help you save valuable gardening space, create a bit of vertical appeal to the garden and also take away a lot of the garden "clutter" (vines climbing all over the ground), while making harvest much easier. I built the watermelon trellis in such a way that I can climb underneath to help wind the vines, trim the grass and harvest my melons. The cantelopes are on a much steeper trellis which makes it very easy to have access to all the vines from all sides. The cucumbers are easy to access from either side of the fence and the fence keeps them from choking my other plants with their tendrils. All around its a great situation. Also, I have noticed that since the watermelons have been on the trellis, the fruits are growing much faster--may be a coincidence, maybe not. Next year, I will be sure to build the trellises from the beginning and train my vines on them.