Indians planted watermelon like squash between hills of corn. Some people planted them in between four hills in groups of 1, 4 or 6 seeds. Some planted them in the same hill as the corn, as follows - corn in the center, beans in middle and squash/watermelon at bottom.

I have grown watermelon in between hills of corn many times and have had great success.

I am planting squash and beans, but not corn. Do you think that sunflowers would be OK to plant between watermelons instead of corn? They grow tall like corn.
Sheila

Yes.

Corn, beans, peas, sunflowers, white potatoes, squash, melons, cucumbers, and pumpkins are all good companions from the classic "3 sisters" technique from the Native Americans: Corn, bean, and squash families.

Thanks for the information - I was excited to plant my blacktail mountain watermelons in between my skyscraper sunflowers. It seems like the perfect spot, except my sunflowers are in a 3 ft. wide by 10 foot long bed against a wire fence...
1. Watermelon vines would not be able to grow in all directions - the fence would inhibit that. I have read that they need to grow in all directions. Is it possible to re-route them manually as they grow?
2. The vines would kill some of the turf that runs next to the bed, and having to lift them up to mow would be next to impossible. Maybe I could just ignore this factor because this is the one that is really stumping me. I don't care much about the turf or mowing, for that matter. :)
3. Isn't there insect life in the grass that isn't necessarily in the exposed soil (or on top) that would destroy the vines and the fruit? Is it okay to grow melons on a lawn? Couldn't find an answer to this anywhere.

Thanks for any thoughts, ideas, comments...

Too late in the season to plant watermelons but there is always next year. I was looking for a companion plant for Okra and watermelons were suggested. I planted watermelons, cantaloupes and honeydew with my okra. The melons did OK, they were the miniature type, they were sweet and tasty even though a bit small. My soil was not optimum, and I enjoyed them. The okra did great! I am still harvesting now (mid november).

When I was traveling through China , I saw miles and miles of Squash vines planted with sunflowers. If that is any consolation to you . How did your watermelon and sunflowers work out . I see that the date is years ago now.

Other than Sunflowers and Okra what can we plant?

Last season I trained my watermelons on a trellis. I used the netted bags from onions and freezer pops to make little hammocks for the watermelons so they wouldn't pull themselves off the vine when they became too heavy. I did lose quite a few blossoms during a bad wind storm, so didn't yield as much fruit as I could have. I'm going to try them on a trellis again this year, just in a spot in my yard that is more protected from the wind.

About sunflowers: Everything I have read says NOT to plant sunflowers near anything! They suck up all the nutrients around them and with as deep as their roots grow, it's best to keep other plants away from sunflowers. At LEAST a foot!