Melon trellis debut

Last week I finished the new melon trellis and it just so happens to be the last thing I have to build in the veggie patch for the foreseeable future. I'm happy that now I only have to focus on planting, maintenance and harvesting. I built it much like I built last years trellises except a few minor adjustments due to its placement and height. Here are photos of the new trellis and the changes I made this year to suit a difference area of the patch.

This is the new trellis that I am going to train melons up. I had 8' 2x2 to build it and lots of nylon trellis netting so I decided to just built it 8 feet high. It meant less cutting & waste. If the melons managed to climb that high I will just have to use a ladder to harvest them. Further building instructions can be found at the link above.

I build my trellises so they are removable due to the fact they are against the house. If any maintenance needs to be done they can easily be removed. Making them removable also has the added benefit of separating the main structure of the trellis from the ground so it should never rot. In this photo I just attached a cleet to the raised bed frame and then bolted the trellis to the cleet.

On the other side I ran into the problem that there is no place to bolt it to. I solved this problem by digging a whole in the ground to form a mold, I then added concrete and pushed the cleet into it. Once the concrete hardened I then removed it from the ground and placed in into the veggie patch to hold up the other side of the trellis. I could have poured the concrete right in the veggie patch but I didn't want to muck up my soil.

The last change from last years trellises was adding a top support because the trellis is so high. I just used a scrap piece of 2x2 and attached it to the brick with a 45 degree bracket and a tapcon fastener.

I then installed black plastic below the trellis for added solar heat. Melons love heat so this should greatly increase my melon yield by keeping the soil warmer in the early and late part of the season. To install it I really soak the soil first, I then tucked the back edge into the soil and secured the front edge with rocks. Now when I need to water I can just lift the front up and thoroughly soak the soil.

Well there you have it, now I hope it warms up enough to plant the melons soon. This week is running rather cool, with any luck it will be the last of the cool weather. Our average temperature this time of year is 22c(72f) and it hasn't been nearly that warm the past few days.