About those gourds

You might recall that I posted quite a few gourd related posts over the last growing season. It has been a long cold winter and I know many of you have had gourd-posting withdrawal.

A couple of days ago I mentioned the gourds and promised “more later”. Well, this is your “more”.

Last weekend I enjoyed sitting in the winter sun prepping some of the “choice” gourds for birdhouses. Last year I found the gourd-tastic website “Amish Gourds” ; he raises and sells gourds for birdhouses and crafts but he also provides a good basic tutorial for raising and curing your own. That’s pretty nice of him, it’s as if he’s saying “I’m in the gourd selling business, but here’s how you can do this yourself if you’re foolish enough to try.”

Following the instructions posted on his “Gourd tips and Information” page, I managed to get a few properly sanded (I dipped them in bleach/water solution a few weeks ago), drilled for hanging holes and ready for painting/sealing.

I came up with a temporary pvc gourd drying rack on Lizzie’s porch; you’ll note the raw gourds are of a dull finish and have significant molds/fungus/? stains on them.

Mrs cohutt suggested paint instead of the “natural” sealed look and the first compromise run was up and drying a hour or so later. Note that it was recommended light colors be used if painting birdhouse gourds due to the cooler inside temperatures vs what would occur with heat absorbing dark colors.

The Next day we had quite a gusty blow ahead of a line of thunderstorms and I came home after work to find this:

Fortunately, these things are structurally quite strong and apparently bounce like ping pong balls when knocked loose from their temporary wire tether. No harm was done; I did a better job securing both the pvc hanger and the gourds. The gourds are back up and no casualties were found among the group. I snapped the following shot this evening:

Pretty silly looking isn’t it? Maybe that’s why I like it.

They are ready for a second urethane coat; after that I will drill 3 drain holes in the bottom of each and cut appropriately sized “front doors” in each.

This year’s experiment may be loofah gourds or “bushel basket” gourds. (Yeah, I typed “loofah”. Look it up, apparently nobody is sure exactly how to spell it.)