Vegetables That Have Vines or Runners

Tomatoes

• Plant tomatoes in the part of your yard that gets the most sun. Tomatoes require full sun to fruit properly. Consider growing grape or cherry varieties of tomatoes. Train the vines to go up a fence or trellis. They nicely cover an unsightly chain-linked fence, on which it is easy to train a tomato vine.

Peas

• Harvest your vegetables quickly and easily by growing peas. Peas grow quickly, and produce tendrils that allow it to clink to fences and trellises. Fences are ideal places on which to grow peas. Peas are easy to pick as they hang down. You can also create a structure on which to train the peas using chicken wire.

Pole Beans

• Anchor a pole into the ground for pole beans. Pole beans grow rapidly. Vines can reach heights of 6 to 8 feet, and like to grow on something they can wrap around. If using a 6-foot pole, you should be able to support between two and four plants. Make sure the pole is erected before the plants begin producing runners and fall over.

Cucumbers

• Train cucumber vines to grow up a fence, trellis or wire cage. When growing cucumbers, use well-drained, fertile soil that has a pH level between 6 and 7, and place them in areas of full sun, but little wind.

Pumpkins

• Consider growing pumpkins only if you have a lot of space. Although they do grow on vines, pumpkins are too large to grow vertically without significant difficulties. Some pumpkin vines can stretch for as long as 20 feet.