About

Gourds for Birds was started from a passion for birds.  My parents have 25 acres and they wanted to have birdhouses all over their yard.  It would have been expensive to buy so many birdhouses and time-consuming to make them, so they decided to grow them instead.

My parents started growing birdhouse gourds in the summer of 2013.  They soon had the hedgerow filled with gourd birdhouses and a gourd birdhouse on every fence post.  The birds loved them and so did anyone who visited.  They looked like strange magical fruit hanging in the trees.

The birdhouse gourds around my parents’ yard inspired my creative side so I asked my parents to grow more gourds for me.  Soon Gourds for Birds was born.  I now make gourd birdhouses to sell at local markets, online sales, and I manage this website where I share my knowledge of working with gourds so others can enjoy working with gourds as well.

Thanks for visiting.

Our gourd garden, 2021.

Here are some of my gourd articles:

  • How To Hollow Out A Gourd Birdhouse

    A gourd birdhouse often invokes a sense of wonder as to how this vegetable can be hollowed out so perfectly leaving a thin strong hard-shell. Luckily for gourd enthusiasts nature does most of the work. As the gourd dries it transforms from a heavy solid green vegetable to a beige light hollow wood-like shell. The…

  • How To Clean The Inside Of A Gourd

    For many gourd projects, it will be necessary to clean the inside of the gourd.  For some projects, such as birdhouses, it will only be necessary to clear out the seeds and most of the inside stuff, while other projects, such as bowls, will require a complete cleaning down to the bare walls of the…

  • Types of Gourd Seeds

    Growing your own gourds is the best way to get lots of gourds for a good price but finding seeds is not always easy especially for some of the rarer gourd varieties. Below is a list of some gourd varieties available with a link to purchase the seeds. After you get you grow your first…