82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 24, 1993
This gourd hat took a sec
ond prize for Ruth Sweitzer
at a Gourd Society Show.
Out Of
Your
Gourd
JOYCE BUPP
York Co. Correspondent
DOVER (York Co.) With
the advent of the planting season,
gardeners are tuning their tillers,
honing their hoe blades, and sow
ing onions, carrots and peas.
In the spirit of trial and adven
ture. many gardeners sample new
variety introductions and perhaps
a new species or two each season.
It was this quest for something a
little different that started York
County gardener Ruth Sweitzcr
off into her gourd venture.
Ruth Swcitzer, Admire Road,
was reading a Burpee seed catalog
in bed one January night 18 years
ago when she ran across the firm’s
introduction of “lagenaria” gourd
seed. Lagenaria are not the small,
colorful, ornamental gourds popu
lar for fall decorating, but large
gourds historically used by cul
tures around the world to make all
sorts of practical storage
containers.
“I am absolutely fascinated
with these gourds,” says the Dover
gardener now often referred to
locally as “The Gourd Lady.”
Gourds have become a focal point
of Ruth Sweitzer’s life, filling not
only her garden and her house but
a large part of her lime as well.
“After growing them, giving
them away, for three or four
years....well, the Lord guides you
if you listen,” Ruth believes. “I
heard a television show one day
dial featured two women from
Cleveland, Georgia, who were
doing things with gourds.”
Ruth Sweilzer, shortly thereaf
ter, drove south to Cleveland,
Georgia, and located the two
gourd enthusiasts. Their know
ledge, encouragement, sugges
tions for growing and creative use
of gourds further propelled her
interest and skills. She picked up
tips on small, specialized tools for
working with gourds, including
the use of keyhole saws for culling
and carving the hard shells of the
lagenaria species.
Now, one can glance in any
direction in Ruth Sweitzer’s taste
fully decorated Dover farmhouse
and see a gourd or more likely,
several gourds.
“You can make anything from a
gourd,” says Ruth mattcr-of
factly. A tour of her cozy home
confirms it.
For starter ideas, nearly every
window boasts a hanging plant
in a hanging gourd planter. Attrac-
Ruth displays one of her many hanging planters styled Gourds keep Ruth Sweitzer much too busy for a rocking
from gourds. Someday, she would like to open a gourd chair. Large ones she grows include the dipper type and a
museum. bushel type perfect for designs like a cat house and the
basket styled by another gourd enthusiast.
live dried arrangements incorpo
rate unusually-shaped gourds as
both base container and a major
part of the design line. Large
bushel gourds fashioned into
bowls and baskets serve as both
ornamentals and holders of every
thing from magazines to Easter
decorations.
One of the most dramatic and
useful creations is a full-length
wired and working floor lamp,
created from a long, straight
necked dipper gourd. Even the cal
has a house carved from what
else? a bushel gourd.
Songbirds around the Sweitzer
farm also benefit from gourd bird
feeders and a favorite creation of
Ruth’s, wren houses.
Ruth fashions wren houses
from both birdhouse gourds and
dipper gourds grown on the
ground. By allowing some dipper
gourds to grow on the ground,
rather than on an arbor or trellis,
the long necks curl and curve
around the small gourd body, pro
viding perfect perching spots
sort of porches for wrens using
the houses.
Sanding gourds creates a very
fine dust which can cause health
irritations to some hobbyists if
inhaled over long periods of time.
In her basement workshop,
between piles of cured gourds for
future projects, Ruth has installed
an air-cleaning system which she
activates while sanding or spray
scaling.
Adjacent to her workshop is a
deep tub where she can soak and
scrub cured gourds for her numer
ous craft uses and shows. Ruth
frequently presents demonstra
tions and programs on gourds and
gourd crafts and recently taught
her first class.
For many years, Ruth grew as
much as two acres of large gourds,
later reducing her plantings as her
supply of gourds on hand
increased. Among the many types
she cultivates are giant bushel
gourds and smaller, slightly flat
tened round gourds, dipper
gourds, birdhouse gourds, even
caveman gourds. This last is a
club-shaped, slightly elongated
type gourd covered with wart-like
protrusions.
Much of Ruth’s extensive
Out of her gourds, Ruth has devised such diverse creations as, from left, a Snoopy
mask, arrangement with dipper gourd grown on the ground, sleigh, Santa and kettle
gourd. A tobacco gourd, a type used by native Americans for storing tobacco pro
ducts, at right has been attractively painted.
wmesfead tA/c(es
knowledge and lore about gourds
has been learned through her own
experimentation and reading a
wealth of printed materials about
these “fruits.”
Early in her gourd-growing
trials, Ruth found that planting
commercially-offered gourd seed
of certain advertised varieties did
not necessarily result in mature
fruits of that type. Gourds com
monly cross-pollenate; unless the
seed purchased is “true,” what a
gardener thinks is planted and
what the end of the season yields
may be two entirely different
results.
“Bushel and dipper gourds are
reliable reproducers,” she says of
these two mainstay types for her
creative uses. “One year, I wanted
to grow round gourds and got a
shape of gourd called a ‘zucca’
instead. I threw them away.”
Then Ruth adds with a laugh,
“Sometime later, 1 went back ad
retrieved them after seeing what
could be done with them.”
These large gourds are a some-
what tropical species and need a
long growing season, so Ruth
starts seedlings inside in April,
planting in peat pots. About a
week before Mothers’ Day, the
sccdmgs are planted outside.
Since the weather is often still var
iable, she protects the tender see
dlings with topped-out plastic jugs
or large flower pots turned upside
down with the bottoms removed.
“Gourds should be grown in
good, fertile soil, with lots of dry
manure worked in,” Ruth advises.
“They shouldn’t be grown more
than two years in the same place,
or diseases will build up in the
soil.
“Seedlings should have 1 at least
four leaves before they’re set out
side,” is her experience. “For
about a month, the plants will just
‘sit there’; that’s okay, because
they’re developing the root sys
tem. After that, vines will grow
quickly.”
When the vines are about four
yards long, Ruth cuts the ends off,
to encourage the development of
side growth. For large bushel
gourds, or encouraging larger
fruits of nearly any gourd, only
one or two fruits per vine should
be allowed to grow and mature.
Gourds can be grown on plastic,
and Ruth also likes to use a heavy
mulch to hold moisture in the soil.
For watering during dry spells, a
sceper hose, which puts water
right at the plants’ roots, is prefer
able over sprinkler hoses which
wet the leaves and vines, encour
aging disease growth.
“Pray for a good, hot summer if
you want to grow gourds,” grins
this gardening veteran. Excessive
moisture causes mildew and rot
ting, a real problem during the
1992 growing season. In fact,
Ruth notes that last year was not a
favorable gourd production year
anywhere around the world. The
extreme wetness of the summer
kept the gourds from developing
the thick, strong shells necessary
for most uses.
Gourds should be hardening on
(Turn to Page B 3)