A Little Helper and a Place to Rest My Gourds

Do you remember my post about my runaway gourd vine?

Well, I planted two birdhouse gourd seeds and a few months later, it was escaping my vegetable garden and was making a good attempt at taking over the lawn.

In fact, every time my husband mowed our lawn, he had to cut back the gourd vines.

Every few days, I would peek around to see if there were any new gourds…

By the time we harvested all of the gourds, we had a total of 17.

Now the vine is gone and I am having to let my gourds ‘cure’ in a cool, dry place. 

The experts say that putting them on a wooden pallet is a good place because it allows for air flow.

The problem is, is that I don’t have a pallet and it is against the law to ‘borrow’ one from the back of the store – people even get arrested for that according to a police officer friend of mine.

So, being the law-abiding citizen that I am, I asked my husband if he could make me a pallet.

You see, my husband enjoys woodworking and the entire third-car bay of our garage is his workshop.  So, my husband thought it would be a good project for my son, Kai, to work on.

So they got to work…

 First, they laid out the wood from some scraps we had.

 Then marked where to cut the wood.

 Then it was time for Kai to learn how the band saw worked and how to operate it safely.

Now the fun part….cutting the wood – with dad’s help.

Now it was time to nail the boards in place.

And then my new pallet was finished….

Here are a few of my gourds.  The rest I am using as a centerpiece on my dining room table and I also gave some to my mother.

I don’t who was prouder, me or my son….

Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."