Your average watermelon or cantaloupe plant would take up more than a 8x8 garden on its own when fully grown. They're very large plants.

There are some dwarf varieties, but I'm guessing that's not what you planted.

Jiver:

You do not have a large enough garden to grow vine crops, unless you were to build a trellis and support the melons as they grow up. Even with these measures, it is not an ideal way to grow melons, which is to let them sprawl. My melons often grow out to 12-15 feet.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

jiver, I just started growing a water melon called Bush Sugar Baby by Burpee. Vines grow 3 1/2 long. The reviews say 5lb melons are very good and sweet in about 80 days.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bush Sugar Baby

Don't know how big a crop you would get in Michigan, but here in our ideal melon climate, I have grown small melons on a 4-foot fence. This can prevent insect and disease problems in some climates. A taller support would be preferable.

You could maybe put two or three plants (preferably of one variety to get good pollination) on a trellis to the north of your other crops, if you don't have other crops on trellises which would shade the melons. A short-season Charentais like Edonis hybrid might be a good choice. Water must be restricted as Charentais melons ripen, or they will split. Harvest before the stems slip. Or try Sugar Nut, a small, very sweet canary melon. My favorite melon for a trellis is Ha-Ogen (Ogen). You would need to determine if it could ripen in warm weather. The Charentais melons maintain their flavor better than many others in fall weather. Sugar Nut is sweet enough that you can get tasty melons even if they finish ripening after the summer heat.

Pinch back the growth tips of the plants plants after a few melons set, to encourage the plant to put energy into ripening the melons instead of making more vine.

Incidentally, do you re-plant your strawberries every year? Change their location from year to year?

I grow 5 cantaloupe in a 4x4 square and up a fence. I do let some sprawl but only because I have the room.
I don't know about watermelon.

I don't know how the new versions of the book are but you should probably look into reading the book Square Foot Gardening.

forget it, jiver. Besides, here in MI melons do not work as well as farther south. I have started some, but only because I have a huge pile of leaves with black walnut leaves mixed in. I can't put them on the beds for a year, or they will kill things, I might as well grow some melons in it.

Thanks, everyone, for the great feedback - I really appreciate it. Sounds like I'll have to find another place for my "great melon experiment"...

To carolync1's question, this is only my second year for the strawberries, so I have not moved them. I did not replant them either - they survived the winter here in MI just fine, with a decent blanket of leaves to keep them (relatively) warm...

With 64sq ft, you may want to concentrate on high yield vegetables. Pole beans, tomatoes, cabbage and lettuce for starters. If you arrange it well, you can have a bean trellis on the North side, tomatoes in the bed, and lettuce growing also in the bed, alone in spring and in the open shade of tomatoes in the summer.

I did not plant a single vine until I went from 550 sqft to about 1200 sq ft. But melons have a role. They are just about the best vegetable planted straight in a compost pile. It just loves that kind of site, but it needs full sun also.

The reason I asked about whether you planned to move the strawberries is that I don't think strawberry plants would appreciate being covered in melon vines.

Here in California, commercial growers order new plants every winter. I don't think this is typical of the entire nation, but I really don't know for sure. But I believe that in many climates it's a good idea to start new runners in a different location for the following year on a regular basis to avoid disease problems.

As you say, surely the melons will smother the strawberries. But other than that, here strawberries are pest- and disease- free, if you exclude slugs, racoons, birds, and possums. Really easy to grow in this climate.

I'm wondering when you say you only have an 8x8 garden spot, is this just the prepared area? And what surrounds your garden spot? Couldnt you plant your melons on the edge of the garden and allow (train as needed) them to grow outward away from the rest?

I have also planted melons amongst my more vertical plants (ie Tomatoes) and then just watch to make sure the tendrils dont try climbing the tom's. I have not had any issues doing this before.