Before the first frost touches your garden with its icy fingers, harvest gourds and prepare them for their use as birdhouses, decorations, sponges, or whatever else is in store for this useful fruit.

Did you plant a gourd vine in your garden this year but don’t know what do with it now? It is perfect for summer interest while it grows and sprawls on fences or trellises. The gourds produce large ...

“Repurpose, recycle, reuse” is the mantra for today’s decor. You’ll get double the value if you decorate for autumn with organic elements that can later be repurposed, All over America it’s the season ...

Gourds are plentiful in the autumn -- you'll find them at farm stands, garden centers and grocery stores. Don’t toss your gourds at the end of the season, dry them instead. Dried gourds weigh a few ...

(Author's note: When I started writing this column 26 years ago — oh, yes, before the turn of the century — it was only to be a few months in the summer. But seeing that gardening was becoming very ...

Birdhouse gourds originated in North America hundreds of years ago. Native American Indians such as the Chickasaw tribe are believed to be the first people to use gourds as birdhouses. The Chickasaw ...

When do I harvest my birdhouse gourds and how do I do it? Harvest them when they are full-size, the skin is hardened, and the stem attached to the fruit turns brown. These thick-skinned gourds can ...

*Refers to the latest 2 years of stltoday.com stories. Cancel anytime. Q • I had a question about bird house gourds. We raised some in two different places and the gourds formed nicely then rotted ...

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Q • I had a question about bird house gourds. We raised some in two different places and the gourds formed nicely then rotted from the inside out before we could use them. We wondered if we should ...