@knitowl: This one's filled with Nigerian bushel gourds now. The kids watch the gourds grow and pick zinnias along the way. It wouldn't be summer without some fun bamboo trellis.

@BotanicalBrain: and I haven't seen that plant before... will have to look it up.  We have a strain of birdhouse gourd we save from year to year - and they self-seed around the property as well.  One year we found a birdhouse gourd growing down out of the tree by the garage - almost the perfect place for it to become a birdhouse without ever cutting it down.

@knitowl: Let me introduce you to Foothill Farms! They have some of the most diverse, fantastic gourd seed around. It's wonderfully cheap, too.

@knitowl: I'd also love to see a photo of your birdhouse gourd.

@BotanicalBrain:  I uploaded a picture of the gourd - but by the fruit it looks like it is one of our dipper gourds that made the grade this year instead of the bottle type -- we'll see if the bottles are in there by the end of the season, we planted both.