They are easy, don't need a lot of work, and give back 100 times what you give them. You can grow them there with no trouble. Just don't start them now. :)

Plant them when you plant your spring garden. You can start plants inside if you want to get a jump on things as well. For the most part they're grown just like cucumbers, and are either grown flat on the ground (these produce nice flat bottoms for standing then up) or on a trellis (rounded bottoms).

I use birdhouse and large dipper gourds for birdhouses. Just about any large gourd makes a great birdhouse, as long as it has nice thick walls (thin tends to rot out in the weather).

Bidhouse gourds say they can get to 50 ft..... I'm not sure if I have the space for them..... is there a way I could grow them...... say into a tree for more space????? How many gourds per vine (i.e. how many vines would I need to plant)...... I have an relatively empty spot I could put them in but I'm not even sure if that's enough space...... Thanks...... :)

Just curious because I have no knowledge of gourds. Can i grow them in SW Florida??

You can grow tons of them, Jen :)

I have a space problem also so I found some old wood ladders people were throwing out, buried the legs into the ground about 8 inches and planted around it. The taller the ladder, the higher the vines can climb. Another thing you can do is use 2 ladders a few feet apart and run twine or jute back and forth between them. This will give all that much more climbing space.
Granny

I used an old kid's swingset the same way, and also balanced poles between two ladders with a long piece of nylon vegetable trellis (think of a big fishnet) between them. My favorite one was a teepee trellis, with four boards "teepee-d" together and another one across the top. I'm putting a link to this one so you can see it, just scroll down to the bottom for a good look. This trellis was covered so thickly by gourd vines only two weeks later that I couldn't see the boards anymore.

Here is a link that might be useful: Casey's Gourd Trellis

Very cool, Casey. You sure do have plenty of space to plant in! I rent a lower flat in an urban neighborhood. Fortunately I have carte blanche with the yard but there isn't much of it and less access to full all day sun. Next summer I plan to have several towers in various places. Maybe I'll get something.

Question: How can I grow the very large gourds?

The large ones take some care. If you trellis them you have to provide them with support, and if you run them on the ground they have to have lots of room. There's nothing more heartbreaking than to walk under your trellis on a nice morning and see that your biggest gourds have hit the ground and broken (sigh... yes... imagine over a dozen broken ones in one night, I didn't think they were heavy enough yet to fall, lesson learned). Anything that will support them is good, some folks use old pantyhose (which is great and doesn't leave marks, just slip the gourd inside and tie it up to something strong. One way or another, you have to protect them from falling.

I don't think I have a green thumb but I love to bird watch in my own backyard and I was wondering if I can grow gourd in New Jersey? My sister lives in Atlanta Georgia and she grew hers last years and had beautiful tenants.