Probably everyone knows that pumpkins are vines, but you probably don't think about them growing on a trellis.
Here's a closeup of a tender tendril that's strong enough to lift the plant and the pumpkins themselves up off the ground.
We planted these pumpkins the second week of June and little over a month later they are just starting to flower. When we have some colorful fruit, I'll post those photos too.
The red trellis is cobbled together from some shelf racks from a defunct store bought for $10 apiece. The paint will fade to pink over time and they will get surface rust, but they will stand up to the weather for many years. They are held up by a 5' length of rebar pushed into the ground at each end and tied to the rack with tie wire. Jute twine would probably do for the season too.
Pumpkins generally do fine just running on the ground without a trellis, but they do tend to get underfoot and the fruit can rot on the ground if we get endless weeks of rain.
This way we can keep the paths between beds clear of the vines and keep the fruit off the ground. At harvest time we won't have to bend over either.
And it looks pretty.
