Gardening Question of the Week:
How to Dry Gourds and What to do with Them.

Ornamental gourds grow as easily as zucchini. But unlike zucchini, there is no limit to what you can do with gourds. By drying ornamental gourds, you can keep them intact indefinitely. You can use them to make bird houses, containers, pots and silly, whimsical decorations that belie the ugly process they go through as they harden.

Growing gourds is the straight forward task. Drying them can be daunting. Can it really be they basically dry themselves? Well if they didn't, they would have died out years ago, right? Drying gourds is an easy process, but it takes time. And as you can see here, it's not always pretty.

• Drying Gourds
• Growing Gourds