Birdhouse Gourds Are Flourishing

Check out the birdhouse gourd vines and luffah gourd vines that completely cover the cattle panel trellises we have in the center of the garden.  The yellow flowers are the luffah gourds.  The birdhouse gourds have a white flower.  The flowers that cover the vine are nice to look at.  On a Saturday morning there is a lot of bee activity as they buzz in and go flower to flower pollinating.

The vines are so thick and they keep sending out growth.  The tendrils wrap around anything.  I think if I stood still they'd wrap around me and Tricia would have to come free me from their grip with a machete.  Amazingly, all this growth is from 3 luffah gourd plants grown from seed and 3 birdhouse gourd plants grown from seed.  Both were seeds saved from previous years.

The luffah gourd flower reminds me a little of a a hibiscus. 

As I lift up the canopy of leaves and look beneath, I see a multitude of birdhouse gourds that are growing and maturing.

I will continue to let them grow until ultimately they will dry out on the vine.

At that point, I'll drill a hole in the bottom and make a birdhouse.  I'll show you how I do this later this fall.  The two that are hanging below are from two or three years ago.  I have them hanging in the backyard from a pecan tree. 

It is a cool little craft to make and give away.  Some people paint them white, but I like the natural color.  I would like to tell you that birds moved into the birdhouses and raised a family there, and perhaps they had in the past.  Right now, unfortunately, each one has a big wasp nest inside.  That is probably why the birds don't move in.  Killing the wasps in the birdhouses are on my project list for this weekend.