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Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:28 am

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Since things have thawed a little bit here in Southern Ontario I have started to think of my garden and the blog again. The gourds continued to dry all winter. First the outer skin turned slimy, brown and black in places, grew some mould too.


Gourds in Early November ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )


By mid-winter the gourds were lighter and the skins had started to peel.






Rotting of the Outer Skin ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

I picked them in late February and we brought them in the house to scrub off the skins. They were frozen and once thawed in the sink began to leak brownish liquid from inside. The pulp and seeds were still pretty wet so I put them back outside to dry further. The hard shell is formed now and they are at least 1/4 of their original weight.





Gourds in December ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )

They will stay outside drying another 4 weeks or so and then we need to start building bird houses so that when the house wren arrives, around late April, they are ready for occupancy.






Gourds in February ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden )






This blog entry has been viewed 414 times

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eileen wrote on Sat Mar 13, 2010 10:45 am:

Your wrens are going to love their new homes. I hope you get some piccies of them moving into their gourd residences.

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SongofJoy57 wrote on Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:10 am:

This is so helpful, as I would like to raise gourds. I also love your little "cottage" in the background . . . the design and colors are gorgeous!

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daisybeans wrote on Sat Mar 13, 2010 12:58 pm:

This is so interesting to see. I hope you'll put up more pics at the next stages.

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daisybeans wrote on Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:05 pm:

I just went back a read the rest of your gourd blogs again... really cool.

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Netty wrote on Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:55 pm:

I'm going to try those gourds again this year. Hopefully they will do better.

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Jewell wrote on Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:42 am:

You've been so enlightening about gourds. I tossed some outside that I had bought for Thanksgiving. It has been very interesting to see what has happened with them. Seeing how yours are progressing makes me impatient to see the next stage. Keep educating me, I love it.

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