1. GOURDS: growing, drying, carving, cutting and decorating gourds to make useful containers and more.

Grow your own gourds and use them to make and decorate handy household containers, bowls, bird houses, soup ladles, dippers, scoops, musical instruments, table décor or even tiny earrings.   A gourd is the hard-shelled fruit of any of various plants, in the botanical family Cucurbitaceae.  If you want to grow your own gourds you can buy seeds online. They grow well in climates from warm temperate to sub-tropical to tropical. So you can grow them pretty much all over Australia as long as you plant the seeds after frost danger has passed. They are suited to cultivation in USDA Hardiness Zones 2 to 11. If you’re in the UK you might have to grow them in a hothouse.  All they need to grow is soil, water and sunlight (and plenty of space). The plants grow as vines, so you can either let them crawl along the ground our train them to climb supportive frames. They look greatl climbing on garden archways or tepees, or a fence or trellis. See crafty pictures on Instagram at Mill Cottage, the Little House on the Peninsula Watch our amazing videos on YouTube at Craftsteading Visit our website at www.craftsteading.com