Hi arjo,

I'm new to vertical gardening myself but, I just bought a new audio about it and from what she says I think you should go for the 7' structure. You can grow the melons, sweet peas, and green beans on the same stucture with the melons growing lower and the peas and beans extending to the higher levels.

Like I said, I'm kind of new at this so I hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vertical Gardening Secrets

After several people's advice regarding the height, I decided to go snag a couple 4' x 16' cattle panels from the Tractor Supply Co. and cut them in half to create 8' trellises. Pretty sturdy although I'm wondering if - once fully covered in vines - if it wouldn't be a huge sail in a strong storm so I may end up supporting it with floating braces in the back...

{{gwi:1270241}}

Also you need pantyhose...

I also used the TSC 4x16 cattle pens cut in half. While it worked great for BOTH my cukes and tomatoes, the cukes (I planted two plants on an 8 foot section) would have LOVED to grow higher. They kept spiking upwards until they would fall over on themselves. The problem was that I planted green peppers at the base so the over growing cukes pretty much halted my pepper production. Going for a double high one this year to see if that works better.

Hi i use the cattle pannels also along with metal stakes that can simply driven into the ground. I don't go any higher than 4 to 5 feet as most won't climb hight than than that, I use the pannels for a top also, durring the summer the pannels can get quite hot, so I also use heavy bird netting and some shade cloth to help protect the vines and melons. I used old pillow cases to hold the melons in, I cut them down and just tie them to the fence, you can use hose which works well also, this will keep them safe should they come lose from the vines when they get ripe or the wind hits them. Cucumbers and the smaller asian melons climb more than most american melon types do, so You can go higher with these if you like. I use the cattle panneles to surround my raised beds and plant every thing on them such as tomatoes, cucumbers and melons and just about anything that might need some support. I have a 2 1/2 foot x 16 inch deep bed that goes completely arround my garden fence which is set at 7ft., so that no useable space is left unplanted this gives me a 90 foot long bed that can be used to plant anything I want. All my beds are double to tripple dug with the bottom half filled with straw.
George W.