DESCRIPTION
Birdhouse Gourd
Lagenaria siceraria
15 certified organic seeds
Make your own birdhouse or use as a blank canvas for your own creation.
Grow Your Own Tools.
Some of the earliest domesticated plants were grown for tool use, just like these bottle gourds.
While young bird house bottle gourds can be eaten fresh like summer squash, mature fruit that has completely dried on the vine has a hard shell. These sturdy forms have not only served as storage and dining vessels throughout history, they've also been blank canvases for artists who carve, paint, and embellish them.
More recently, people have found that these gourds work beautifully as bird houses—especially for purple martins.
GROWING INSTRUCTIONS
Direct sow after frost, or start indoors 2-3 weeks earlier. Transplant or direct sow in hills 6' apart, three plants per hill, or in rows 36" apart. Can be trained to grow up supports. Needs as long of a season as possible, so be sure not to harvest until right after the vines have died back. Dry in a well-ventilated, dry location until the gourd sounds hollow when tapped and the seeds rattle inside when shaken.
QUICK FACTS
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Wendi Dibbern's endless fascination with the interplay of human design and the natural world is apparent in her linoleum block print. Here, she actually chiseled a beautifully carved gourd as a home for a pair chickadees, surrounded by every growing stage of the gourd.