bird house gourds

Filey

Has anyone tried growing long necked gourds, hollowing them out and hanging them up in the garden as bird nests? I have seen some photos of really long necked gourds but they were in the US. In the UK the nearest I have found are the swan neck ones but I am wondering if anyone has seen any longer ones, or even tried doing this.

Money_maker

Got some seeds from ebay a year or two ago. Had no success (could have been me!). Still have them so will try again this year. Gourds can be quite temperamental and given the wet summers we've had recently, its not been as ideal as it should be.

Lotus-eater

I haven't tried gourds as birds nests per se, but gourds I tried once and had loads of them.
Not sure how they'd work as a birds nest, in our climate surely they would just go mouldy and fall apart?

Filey

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I haven't tried gourds as birds nests per se, but gourds I tried once and had loads of them.
Not sure how they'd work as a birds nest, in our climate surely they would just go mouldy and fall apart?

Not if you have the hard shelled gourds (siceraria). They won't last for ever of course, but once they are dried and especially if you give them a coat of polyurethane or wax, they will keep for a year or two. So I've read. Haven't done it myself yet but will have a go this year.

hermum

I'd been thinking of buying some of these myself. Really need to be using the space to grow food. It would be really interesting in knowing whether anyine has any success with them,

hermum

oops
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150408531916&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT