The hose is to support the melons as they develop since the vines are not capable of carrying that sort of weight when on a trellis. The trellis suppports the vines themselves, it ionly the fruit that requires slinging.

Are these buckets next to a trellis of some sort, or are they just sitting on a patio?

Right now, they're sitting in the middle of my yard on blocks, but I'm about to go purchase some sort of trellis and will probably move them so that they're alongside my fence.

Make sure it is a heavy duty trellis and is firmly attached to the fence. The melons weigh at least 8lbs each, or work out a way to attach the slings for the melons to the (wooden?) fence. There are soem instructions in the FAQ on considerations on building a trellis for vining crops.

I'm also not sure how watermelosn do bucket grown, you might get better results digging a hole next to the fence/trellis big enough for the bucket contents and transplanting the entire thing into the hole, using a hoe to keep grass a foot or so away from the base of the vine.

My lasagna gardening book reccomended growing melons using two half whiskey barrels-one for a base that was turned upside down and then another to plant in that is placed on top of that one, turned right side up of course. They said the melon vines grow down instead of taking up the floor space in the garden which is the purpose of the trellis as I understand it. (that and easier picking) Sounds like you have the same arrangement going - with the buckets on the blocks. I'm planning to try some this way this year since trellis building is something I may not have time for this year. You might consider just leaving them?? Just a thought! Good luck and let us know how it works out.

those whiskey barrels are pretty expensive. @ $18 each at Lowe's. So, there's a $36 dollar investment (plus soil) to grow a few watermelons. Maybe there's some other device that would do the trick.