Melon
Melón · Melon
🧩 Role in the garden
- Family
- Cucurbitaceae
- Height
- low (< 40 cm)
- Shape
- sprawling
- Roots
- deep
- Sun
- full sun
- Season
- warm season
- Grows in
- ☀ summer beds (warm season)
- Feeds
- heavy feeder
Jobs in the bed
- Covers the soilShades the soil, keeps moisture in and holds weeds back. Best on the edge of the bed.
Rotation
Do not return Cucurbitaceae to the same spot for 3–4 years. Same family:
✓ Good neighbours
✗ Keep apart
None listed.
✿ Helpful flowers & herbs
- ✿ Marigold (Tagetes)Grown densely for a season, French-marigold roots suppress root-knot nematodes; in greenhouses its scent keeps whiteflies off tomatoes Also deters beneficial insects; the "vs potato beetle" claim is unproven
- ✿ NasturtiumTrap crop — draws aphids & caterpillars off the crop; trailing ground cover; edible Plant slightly away from the main crop so pests move to it, not onto the crop
- ✿ BoragePowerful bee/pollinator magnet; pollinator flowers have been shown to raise strawberry yield & quality Large plant, self-seeds freely
- ✿ SunflowerLiving support for climbers; attracts pollinators & seed-eating birds Its residues are allelopathic (a legume sown after sunflower yielded less): clear the stalks before resowing; tall and thirsty, it competes with low neighbours
- ✿ PhaceliaOne of the best bee & hoverfly attractants; also a green manure