I do!!
Last fall I learned that a family we know had spread fill dirt through their yard to prepare it for grass seed. A plant came up in that dirt that they thought was zucchini or squash, so they let it grow. It turned out to produce "nasty warty gourds." I found myself chuckling as I heard this description because I had bought a box of decorative gourds the day before to put around my house for a fall-time look.
I didn't know what to do with these gourds when I took them down, so I stuck them back in their box and put them in the garage. Over the winter some of them decayed and were nasty, but some looked the same as the day I bought them. I got a smile on my face remembering the conversation from the fall and decided to try planting the seeds just for fun and to see what would come up. The final result is that I have a TON (over 100--and more still on the plants) of decorative gourds and mini-pumpkins and the plants took over a large portion of my flowerbeds (which worked out nicely because it filled them with green and I haven't yet decided what to permanently plant in that area). I think I am covered on the fall decorations and now I just have to convice Paul that it really WAS fun to grow them and that we really CAN do it again next year.
3 comments:
I showed this picture to my mother-in-law and she was very jealous. She wants to know if it was hard and if they will grow in a coldish climate.
These were SO easy--I pretty much ignored them. I didn't fertilize them, I only watered them for the first few weeks (and this is Idaho where it never rains), and they were attacked by an army of squash bugs, but lived on. They just took off and took over. If your mother-in-law can grow pumpkins, squash, or zucchini, she can grow these. They grow about the same.
Thanks for the info!
P.S. take a look at my new blog that I haven't told anyone about yet.
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