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Decorating Your Backyard with Gourds

Gourds are among the easiest garden plants to grow yet have a wide range of varieties and uses. Decorating your backyard with gourds can include using the plants themselves as decoration or using the end product for embellishment. Either way the result can be both attractive and functional.

If you would like to use gourds as a part of the landscape to decorate your backyard there are a few things you will need to keep in mind. The first is gourds, the plants themselves, take space. Very similar to pumpkin and watermelon plants gourds have large leaves most are larger than the average hand with fingers spread) and long vines (any place from 10 to 50 and beyond feet).

Two options for growing gourds to decorate your backyard are on fences or trellises Gourds grown on a fence can provide privacy for your backyard or create a beautiful back drop or focal point. If you would like to grow gourds on a trellis or pergola this will furnish shade during the warm months of summer while relaxing in your backyard. Great choices of gourds for use on fences or trellises would be ornamental, birdhouse, swan neck, or luffa. You do not want to grow bushel gourds on a fence the gourds themselves are much too heavy for climbing use and could cause damage to the fixture or the plant itself.

Any kind of gourd makes a beautiful ground cover. The vines when spreading across the landscape seldom get more than a foot high and once the plant establishes itself the gourd works as a natural weed control by blocking sun to the earth underneath. If you would like to use gourds as a ground cover you will need to keep in mind they spread and they climb so you will need to devote a few minutes a week moving the vines where they are supposed to be. It's not recommended that you plant ground cover gourds among other plants as they will climb anything they can reach and can cause damage to the neighboring plant.

Using gourds to decorate your backyard will give a variety of greenery to your yard and the gourds themselves can be a conversation piece or simply an added interest. Gourds also add color to a yard. While many of the gourds are green there are as many others that are yellow and or white. The ornamental gourds are a great example of color. Also, gourds put off beautiful trumpet shaped blooms that are normally white or light cream colored before the gourd starts to develop.

If you would like to use actual gourds to decorate your backyard there are a variety

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