The Gourd Project

I love these whimsical gourd birds made from gourds I grew a few years ago. I felt they needed friends and decided to plant gourds again this past summer.

 Unable to find small spoon gourds seed (with a neck,) I bought a seed mix from Urban Farmer.

Although I only needed a few gourds, I planted three seed to increase my chances of getting the one I wanted. I planted two in the center of raised beds and one behind the cold frame, next to the compost bin, with the intention of training the vine to grow on the fence.

All three plants produced gourds, all were egg shaped. Okay, that was not the plan but I can use these for Christmas ornaments and Easter decorations.



20 Gourds

The plants in the raised bed grew nicely and produced enough gourd eggs for my purposes.



8 Gourds

                                     

The one planted by the compost bin was another story. It behaved as though it was on steroids (actuallly it was on compost,) with vines taking over the cold frame and going underground into the greenhouse. I cut the vine several times to keep it out of the fig trees.

A good testimony for compost!

 

From what I understand, gourds dry better left on the vine until they are cured. That is what I will do with the gourds in the raised bed. However, the cold frame will be needed this winter so it was necessary for me to cut the vine engulfing the cold frame.



102 cut from vine

   

and placed on a drying rack on the potting shed rafters.



28 left on cut vine to cure.

And that isn’t all! There are still gourds on the vine behind the cold frame. Plus the ones on the vine that grew under the fence into my neighbor’s yard. (Unlike me, he actually did train the vine on the fence.)

 

All totaled I am sure there are at least 200 little gourds, about 175 from one little seed.

So, what will I do with these little treasures? Follow my crafting blog, Crafting from the Underground and you will see. If you want some to play with and live in my community, let me know.

 

As the days grow shorter and the temperature gets cooler, I am transitioning from the potager to my Underground Studio. So, like the garden, this blog will go fallow for the winter.