Waiting for Gourds

I'm unnaturally excited about the growing Gourds. I bought a package of small Ornamental Gourd seeds last year and we could not find room in the garden for them. I was probably too late to plant them too, but I was very whiny and beggy about wanting to plant them SOMEWHERE and Susie put her foot down. She'd already worked harder than I had, digging and planting and weeding, and thought I had everything overcrowded. So I had to be patient. I started that same pack in the house this year and bought some Birdhouse gourd seeds to start too. These have the pretty white night blooming flowers. When I walk out into the garden to check on things, I tend to first ignore the entire edible vegetable section and hop over to the Gourds. I am just fascinated with them and really not believing I might be able to grow those strange, funky looking creatures. I feel like I'm waiting for a dinosaur egg to hatch. Yesterday I did a search on Flickr for Birdhouse Gourds and scrolled through some pretty amazing photos. People dry them and drill a hole in the center and either leave them in their natural state or paint all sort of funky designs and colors. They looks so fun hanging from trees. I think it's a great fall activity, when the garden has wound down, to set all your Gourds out to dry, anticipating the drilling and painting part. NEXT year, I'm going to try growing Loofah Gourds. These are Gourds that when dried are those Loofah Sponges you use in the tub. How crazy is that? I hope to have baskets of home grown Loofah sponges to give away. Maybe I will get ambitious and make some kind of herbal bath concoction and pair it with the Loofah for Christmas gifts. Christmas from the garden.

In the meantime, I'm patiently waiting to see some form of shape and actual fruit on the Birdhouse Gourds. Watch out when that happens, because I might just explode from glee.
They seem to be growing well. Lots of tendrils and flowers. One has grown right up the fence. (That white, little tissue ghost, looking thing is a dryer sheet. Earl has them clipped to his entire row of trees to ward off the deer who are eating them to bits. Not sure if it's working. But the backyard looks like a bad display of early Halloween decoration.)



As you can tell from the full garden photo, we ran out of straw. I don't know if I want to buy another bale. Might try grass clippings on the rest. I know the tomatoes want to be mulched too. The are thirsty plants and the mulch really helps to retain the water.

Standard garden crops: cukes, tomato, and peppers all showing themselves. They may be standard, but I still find them miraculous. I'm noticing though, that I'm much more excited about the crops I've grown from seeds. I've decided next year, the entire garden is going to be from seed and I'm going to wig out with crazy veggies: tomatoes like Red Lightning, Black Krim and Big Rainbow. Palace King and Armenian cukes, Watermelon Radish, Tongues of Fire Bush Shell Bean, maybe some Scallop summer squash. Just discovered Rattlesnake Beans, so cool looking, but I don't think they grow well in the North. I am just going to mix it all up and try new colors and shapes. Susie will have a fit, but she'll survive. Maybe she'll get to have some rows of good ol' sweet corn to feed her Indiana soul and distract her from the strange garden I'm going to grow.