We love our arched trellises (made from 4 x 16 cattle panels from Tractor supply as a matter of fact). We’ve used them for cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, pumpkin, and sweet potatoes. We don’t grow huge pumpkins, but growing vertically helps a lot in our raised beds.
Here’s a picture of a Seminole pumpkin to which I gave some extra support last fall when we were expecting storms.
These are the new garden beds we were given last summer just after we added the arched trellises. We grew cowpeas up them last year both for harvest and for soil improvement in the new beds.
The heat and sun can be intense down here in summers, and standing under covered arches is almost like a refuge. Cherry tomatoes do particularly well down here, and it’s fun to harvest them from overhead.
This was our tomato arch last year. It had indeterminates on the far side and determinaties on the near side. Our pumpkin that was growing in a small bed with a vertical trellis kind of took over the determinate side, and I let it, though I don’t believe it set any fruit on the arch at that point. We did harvest and fry some flowers, though. I loved them, the kids not as much.
