I'm by no means an expert at growing melons, but I'll tell you what's worked for me and you can try it out. Melons love the heat and will produce much more fruit if they're kept warmer, and I learned from a gardening class that planting the melons in black plastic works really well. Just get a big sheet of black plastic, and put it on the ground and plant right into it, cutting little "X" mark holes into the plastic to put the seedlings through to the dirt. I have used rocks and boards to secure the black plastic from blowing away. You also have to make sure that it's watered under the plastic, so I use drip hoses and string them along by the plants under the black plastic, then we hook that to our watering system and they're watered automatically so I don't have to mess. The black plastic method has worked really well for me for the past few years and I've had a lot of production from my melon patches.

I know there is some kind of porous plastic that you can water overhead with, use the rain, but I haven't looked into this at all, and I don't know how much warmer it would make it. Out here in Utah it's too dry to do it, but in Ohio it might work well.

Also, for your info the melons I had in the blog were orange-fleshed honeydew.

When a melon is ripe it will start to form a "detachment" looking circle around the stem, and it will come off when you pull on it softly (or hold the melon up by the vine).

Best luck with the melons!
Ammon