When seedlings begin to take off, you’ll want to thin them to one seedling per hill, ideally. Plant 5 seeds per composted hill about 5” apart. Plant the seeds in situ (in their permanent spot) as soon as the last frost date has passed in your area. Outdoors: Soak the seeds in water overnight to give them a leg-up on germination. The nice thing about peas is that they are a legume, so instead of stealing nitrogen from the growing gourds, they actually fix nitrogen into the soil. So, you can try planting another veggie like peas right up the trellis or fence with the gourds. In fact, as a suburbanite, I’m always game for doubling up on space. One way to avoid this problem is to use 3” or so of mulch around the vines and under the fruit, however, it’s just as easy to grow them up trellis’s, fences or cages instead. However, because they are a long-season crop, they end up sitting on the ground for long periods and could become rotten on the side touching the ground. It’s preferable to get them into the ground as soon as the last frost date in your areas has passed since they can take anywhere from 125-140 days to mature.īirdhouse gourds can be grown on the small “hills” that is the traditional way of growing squash or gourds. You can purchase birdhouse gourd seeds from local nurseries or seed catalogs. The yellow-flowering gourds ( Cucurbit spp.) are the thin-skinned and used as colorful decorations. The birdhouse gourd is the white-flowering gourd species that produce the hard-shelled fruit mainly used for crafts. Gourd birdhouses are attractive to many species of birds including wrens, chickadees, swallows, bluebirds, titmice, and nuthatches. Growing birdhouse gourds and then preparing them as a bird’s next prime real estate is a garden project that anyone can do and a great circle-of-life lesson plan for kids (or you, if you need one). While you’re planting food and flowers in your garden, why not plant a garden craft, as well? Birdhouse or bottle gourds ( Lagenaria siceraria) are one of the thick-skinned gourds that are mainly grown for crafts or decoration.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |