The Gourd Tree...

... Today's special edition of two blogs in one day is dedicated to our new gourd tree...

Yes, I know. Gourds grow on a vine, not in a tree. But, my gourd vine is growing in a tree :) A crab apple tree to be exact.

For the last month or so (Perhaps longer, perception of time is diminishing)we've been watching this vine grow. We did not plant this vine, it just sort of showed up one day. We believe it's from last fall when we had all sorts of gourds to show off on the very cute straw bail I made Mr. Pretties haul home in the Buick's trunk last year, which then infested our car with numerous furry ugly-assed spiders. No worries though, I took care of those with a very large can of raid. I felt bad about it, but it had to be done, we can not be taking road trips with Wolfies, sorry. We left the gourds out for the squirrels to eat once we were done with them since my other choice was to throw them in the green bin or try to remember to cart them to Aunt Pretties so she could take them to her friend's to feed to the deer. That sounded like a lot more work than simply leaving them out and waiting for the squirrels to take care of them...

So anyway, we watched as this mystery vine (Okay, it wasn't 100% a mystery, we did know it was either a pumpkin, a cucumber, or some type of squash/gourd) took over the whole garden, the pergola, and then the crab apple tree. It had lovely yellow flowers all over it and looked quite pretty, with just the flowers I was impressed.

Then Saturday as Mr. Pretties and I were enjoying the peace and quiet that only happens when The Pretties are sleeping I noticed that it appeared that the mystery vine had accomplished something over night... upon further inspection I found that it had grown a sweet little yellow gourd with white stripes and a green bottom. Awwww. I then ran back to Mr. Pretties and yelled 'I have given birth! The mystery vine has grown a gourd! It's a gourd tree!' Mr. Pretties replied by rolling his eyes. He doesn't get it. This is a good time to note though that I don't even really like plants, but this tree is too cute for words! I then counted and our gourd tree is in fact growing 10 gourds, all yellow with white stripes and green bottoms. It is so cute.

I'm sort of glad it wasn't a pumpkin vine though, since it's growing in a tree we would have had to build some scaffolding or something to support it up there and I don't think I could have talked Mr. Pretties into that whole ordeal...

Now please note I had to make a big effort to create this post about my gourds... I had to replace the camera batteries twice, removing them from the LLP's rocking horse even, to go outside, in my robe (The neighbours are under the impression I do not get dressed, they however are mistaken, I just like wearing my robe) to take pictures of the wee gourd tree. We're definitely going to keep the seeds from the gourds, and possibly seeds from grocery stores ones to plant again next year, this vine has been a lot of fun!

So there you have it, gourds can grow in trees, and because of this there will be straw bail hauling in Mr. Pretties near future again this year ;)