Hello! This is my first year having a garden! But it's not my first year growing anything.. I have been growing garden plants in containers my whole life, but we just purchased our own home, and built a slightly raised garden in the back.

I planted all kinds of things back there, but the ones I've never grown before are the Pumpkins. I planted regular orange 'Jack O' Lantern' pumpkins, some white pumpkins, and those small decorative gourds.

I've been doing some reading on Cross pollination and hand pollination but I'm confused. If I leave the flowers to get pollinated by the bees, the fruits of -this year- will be normal correct? But the seeds inside could be a cross between the pumpkins and the gourds? Does that mean that next year if I plant the seeds they will become some sort of hybrid or will they not grow at all?

Thanks for any help :-)