That should work. Some plants climb by themselves and others need help. Give it to them if needed. Good luck and hopefully they'll top out your trellis!

The worst thing is that things might have to sprawl a little - who cares?! Tie things up the best that you can and think about stronger netting for next year. Keep an eye out for stems that might break - expecting pumpkin AND watermelon AND squash to share might have been a bit ambitious, live and learn. We have to be optimists in order to be gardeners.

I'm totally sure I'm not visualizing things right, but that sounds like a lot to trellis considering the weight. I agree with stitchintime. Just let the pumpkin and watermelon trail behind the trellis and onto the ground. They'll do fine. If the zucchini is a bush variety, it will get huge, but once everything grows up the trellis, the upper leaves will get the sun and all will be right and dandy.

We all learn by doing. I learned not to plant okra behind my peppers and the pots in the front walk are more suited to peppers than eggplants. Learning is half the fun because then we can go through and redesign the garden all over again. It's what keeps us all sane in the winter months, anyway.

Thanks for all the encouragement and tips! I will try to post some pics later this week (I don't know how to on this forum yet). Besides, I need to take new ones. My old pics are from about 10 days ago and some of my plants have gotten monstrous in comparison! BTW, I "only" planted one pumpkin seedling/plant. And the watermelons are sugar babies which makes a difference! LOL I can just see the pictures in your minds!! The squash on the other side is a little scarier -- it has gotten so big! I am imagining a garden like Hagrid's on Harry Potter. I am hoping some will climb otherwise my son will probably end up mowing something.

Thanks!

Carol

HA! Mowing here can be an adventure. There's either a semi circle around the cantaloupe left uncut or I get called outside to lift up the vines.

I made the same mistake with the squash...I just assumed that it would be a "vining" variety and it most definitely wasn't! Both my squash and zucchini got monstrous and certainly didn't want to climb a trellis. Like you said, it's a fantastic learning experience! :)