Gourds in Your Garden by Ginger Summit (1998, Paperback)

I wanted to learn how to grow my own gourds. It is so important to have control over your own designs. This book literally holds my hands. In simple but profound terms, it instructs me on what is required to be successful. It informs me of the many types of gourds on planet earth. It teaches me about deseases, care, harvesting, cleaning, and how peoples of the world use gourds. This book is definately a keeper.

Well written and easy to read. Lots of color photos. It lists different types of gourds and their description and photos, history and lore. Cultivation is covered starting with soil prep and planting , growing , what to do about which bugs and finally harvesting. There is a growing calendar of photos of different stages of development from start to finish. Then it's on to curing and cleaning the gourd for its final intended use. Many suggestions are given for possible final use. The appendix lists different gourd societies as well as gourd seeds and dried gourds for sale. What I like about the book is that I found a lot of new information even though I have grown gourds for many years. The reason I purchased the book is because there is a picture of a long-handled dipper gourd that is tied in a knot on the cover and I really wanted to know how to do that. And YES- the book tells you how-