Gorgeous Gourds

With all this talk about the gourd I bought and it's flash to oblivion, I thought it might be inspiring to tell you, quickly, what happened to the seeds I retrieved from that now vaporized gourd. 
When I drilled a hole in the gourd it was for bird access.  Since the birds didn't enter the gourd I guess the hole I put was actually for the wasp's to enter... or it could be, I suppose, the access point for the propane torch. Take your pick. Let's move on.

I drilled a hole in the dried gourd and dumped out all the dried detritus.  Most of what would have been pulp when the gourd was "green" was now nothing more than a whitish powder and some hard stuff that resembles the walls of a spaceship I saw on the sci-fi channel.  In addition to the detritus there were gourd seeds about the size of sunflower seeds with the husks intact.  I put the seeds in a cup and presented them to she who has a green thumb, Ginger.

This spring Ginger planted some of those seeds in the planter boxes you can see in the picture below.  They had a rough start as there were creatures in the soil that liked to eat baby gourds.  Once discovered they were short work for the man with the poison sprayer... yep, that would be me, your most humble author.

So now we're into late summer and the gourd vine has been struggling during the summer months.  But as things start to cool and the days become shorter the vine growth took off and there are gourds sprouting everywhere.  The vine is just growing like a weed and it had best hurry because it's running out of time.  The gourds are growing so fast we can see a marked difference in them each day.

Female flower.  You can tell by
the sensous curves and full body.

I did learn the gourd has male and female flowers.  The males fertilize the females and then the females produce the fruit/gourd (parents feel free to use this post as an introduction to sex education).  I also learned that sometimes when you take seeds directly from a gourd those seeds produce a plant that is called a "mule."  The "mule" doesn't produce fruit... the plant is sterile like a "mule" (I know parents, we're quickly going over your head... feel free to ask little Johnny to explain about mules).

Male flower, standing erect.

By the end of July when we didn't have any baby gourds and were fearful that we had a sterile (mule) plant.  We just were not patient enough as now the gourds are popping up all over the plant.  All this time has passed since spring when we planted the gourd seeds and just now they are getting around to producing fruit.  This plant was spending the whole summer getting ready for the sprint to the finish line, hopfully beating the freeze.

So with these home grown gourds literally coming to fruition I have to start planning what I'm going to do with them.  I have considered making a bird house out of one but might let that idea pass because of the problem described in the previous post.

I know, this is a great idea!  I'll send them out as Christmas presents this year.  I'm sure all the grandkids will love them and probably like the gourds better than the check we usually send.  Yea, I like that idea.

Since we'll be harvesting before Thanksgiving we can make gourd pies.  Heck, pumpkin is part of the gourd family... why not our gourds?

Oh my, what a season it's going to be.  Gourd pie, gourd Christmas presents. I'll save a special pair of gourds, paint them and give them to Ginger and call 'em maracas.  She'll be happier with home grown maracas than that white fox coat I bought her some years ago... I'm sure she will love 'em.

Oh I love it when a plan comes together.

Anyone wanting a gourd just let me know, we'll have plenty.

Whoohoo!