I wouldn't be surprised if the headline in our local newspaper soon reads something like "EXTRA! EXTRA! Crazy local gardener missing & thought to be abducted by her monster gourd vine!"
Yes, I have a gourd growing in my garden and it's turning into, well, a bit of a monster. It's a garden Godzilla (Godzilla was green, right?) and it's hundreds of flowers are working really hard to attract Mothra.
Anyway, I exaggerate...a little. No, it's not something from The Little Shop of Horrors, it's just the Giant African Bottle Gourd that I planted back in April and it's growing ... and growing ... and growing! As a matter of fact, it's (not so slowly) taking over the entire back corner of my vegetable garden. Luckily I have a lot of extra room back there and I wouldn't care one bit if it broke out from the formal confines of the garden and wandered into the field.
I haven't measured it, but I'd estimate the gourd plant to be about 35 or 40 feet long by 25 feet wide right now. And, it has some pretty big gourds growing too.... lots and lots of big (dare I say 'giant'?) gourds.
Here are a few photos I took of my garden Godzilla yesterday ... keep in mind that this is a single plant!
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