Featured Plant: Ornamental Gourds

Consider the humble gourd. You can’t eat it. Some of the are down right ugly. Most of the time you can’t predict what you’re going to get when you plant them. Yet, we love them. We grow them in all shapes and sizes and then we proudly display them. Sometimes we even dry, paint, glaze or otherwise preserve them to enjoy forever. How many plants can say that? And I know I say a lot of plants are easy to grow, but all you need to do for a nice harvest of gourds is to toss some old ones into your compost pile. If you’re better than me about turning your compost, and prefer to grow your own gourds, this will get you started.

• Growing Ornamental Gourds
• Drying Gourds
• Making Gourd Birdhouses

Photo: © Marie Iannotti (2008) licensed to About.com, Inc.