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Before any crafting begins, we have to make sure the gourd is clean. If I’m lucky, I get to see mama bird feeding baby birds their breakfast. Some days they are out and about for their morning stroll; other times they are snuggled up together in the house taking an extra hour or two of sleep. I was a little sloppy with the first application and sprayed too much near the opening which caused some of the ink to bleed. You can see it on the petals to the right of the opening.
How to Make a Purple Martin Gourd House
Insert the wire through the hole you just made on the upper bulb of the gourd. The length of the wire entirely depends on how you want the birdhouse to hang. I suggest hanging it no more than a foot from branches, so the wire should be about two feet. The birdhouse pictured above is painted with a sunflower design and then covered with a few coats of polyurethane spray.
A Company of Gardeners
You won’t toss aside your Halloween gourd birdhouse after the festival. Hang it in trees, on your porch, or on iron rods outside your house. Purple martins are social birds, and with an apartment-like design on a pole, you can’t go wrong. It has all the features to support a colony of birds, especially in a small space, while adding beauty to your yard. A metal pole and brackets to hold several gourds ensure it will house many birds.
Different Entry, Different Size, Unique Bird
We laid ours out in the grass and left them in the weather all winter long. To buy seeds the kids harvested from plants they grew in their garden, click the highlighted link. We have birdhouse gourd seeds some times of the year. Painting is another excellent way of decorating a gourd.It is advisable to paint a gourd birdhouse as it prolongs its life. Paint the exterior white or a light pastel.Light colors ward off the summer heat and attract the martins like crazy.
Miscellaneous Cut Gourds
By early spring, properly cured gourds should be ready to carve into birdhouses, water dippers, bottles or other crafts. Fourth, be sure to plant gourds in a spot with lots of space. That’s because they grow rapidly and aggressively. Plus, by being able to climb, their fruits can dangle into fun crafting shapes for later. If you’re looking for birdhouse or other gourds that are already grown for your bath, art project, birdhouse, or containers, check out our Etsy site. We have different gourds available at different times of the year.
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The size of the gourd and entrance hole will vary depending on the type of bird that you wish to attract. Refer to this chart from the American Gourd Society. First, be sure to harvest your gourds before a frost hits. But leave them on the vine as long as possible so they mature as much as possible before you pick them.
When to Harvest Birdhouse Gourds
After they dry for about 6 months, you can soak the birdhouse gourds in water and scrub the remaining skins off. You can leave them the natural color or paint them. The natural color is tan but they have spots that look kind of like mold. If you paint them, you need to use a paint that will not wash off. You can use house paint, acrylics, oil paints, or we used spray paint because that is what we had. When dry, you can hang your gourd (you’ll need at least 4 to 6 gourds to attract purple martins) from a 24-inch plastic-coated copper wire.
How to Grow and Care for Luffa
All and all though, it is quite easy to drill a birdhouse gourd. I recommend setting up your drying station away from your living space and out of the reach of children and pets. A heated garage is ideal but a well-ventilated basement works as well. Where ever it is, the temperature needs to stay above freezing and it needs to have a decent airflow. In this article, you’ll find all you need to know to cultivate hard-shelled birdhouse gourds in your garden. Luffa are annual plants, living their entire lifespan in one growing season.
More on how squash flowers and fruit happen is detailed here. When you shop via these links, you help support our ability to provide you with valuable, free gardening help like this article. Learn to grow carrots successfully in your home garden and put those grocery store carrots to shame. Overwatering and underwatering are the cause of many garden problems. Because the gourd has a rounded surface, getting the stencil to sit firmly is challenging.
You will know they are completely cured when the seeds rattle inside. Birdhouse gourds take several months to mature before they are ready for drying. If there’s a birdhouse that native Americans used to attract birds, it’s this natural gourd birdhouse. After all, they just need a place to roost and raise a family. Here is another great birdhouse made from apple gourds with an adorable roof. Designed to attract small birds like wrens, it has a 1.5″ entry hole, is seven inches in diameter, and stands ten to twelve inches high.
Attach the 3/8″ bit to the drill and add three or four holes to the bottom of the gourd for drainage. Use a 1/4″ bit to drill two holes at the top of the gourd for hanging. If you want to train them up a trellis or fence, plant the seeds about 2’-3’ apart (intersperse pea seeds in between if you’d like). Birdhouse gourds like well-drained soil and some compost or composted manure tossed in there once in a while. Using the 1/4” bit, drill both hanger and drainage holes. Again hold the gourd and the drill firmly and use moderate pressure to keep the bit from skipping off the spot.
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