FALMOUTH, Ky. – Debbie Bowles’ farm in Falmouth once thrived with beef cattle, hay and tobacco. But after Debbie and her husband took the Tobacco Buyout roughly 20 years ago, there was a void on the farm. What was once filled with big leafy tobacco leaves had become a vacant lot.

Bowles and her family raised cattle, hay and tobacco for decades. During this time, Bowles was an elementary and junior high teacher while raising her children. Time for her was a precious commodity, but the absence of tobacco made life around the farm a tad easier.

A few years after the departure of tobacco, Bowles attended a craft show with one of her friends and spotted a crafted gourd. Suddenly, the creative light bulb went off in her head. Bowles got busy and planted gourds. Hundreds of gourds.

“My husband and I share the love of growing things, and I found the passion for crafting the gourds (and) we started growing them,” she said. “To this day we raise many varieties of gourds, from mini to large African wine kettles.”

Bowles buys seeds that are pure, meaning those that have not been cross-pollinated.

“This way I know what the outcome will be,” she said. “We have grown several different types of seeds in a relatively small area, so our plants are likely to cross-pollinate. Most seed vendors grow in separate fields or cover the blossoms to prevent this from happening.”

The growing process starts from seed in the couple’s small greenhouse in early spring. Growing continues in the greenhouse until after the first freeze. Gourds typically take 75 to 130 days to reach maturity, depending on the variety and growing conditions.

“Gourd vines must die before harvesting,” she said. “If the gourds are picked before they completely mature, they will rot before completely drying and hardening. I usually wait until the vines have withered or until after the first freeze. Gourds can remain in the field while drying, but it’s best to bring them into a well-ventilated area off the ground, such as on pallets. We then have to patiently wait for nature to dry them, which can take anywhere from a month for the smallest mini to more than a year for large varieties.”

Once the gourds get to the dried, hardened state the cleaning and crafting can begin.

“The cleaning stage is my least pleasant part of the process,” she said. “There’s work cleaning the seeds and the dermis layers. Over the years I’ve collected many tools to help with this stage of cleaning.”

Bowles never attended art classes, nor did anyone teach her how to adorn gourds. With dried gourds she’s created lamps, vases, bowls, birdhouses and more.

“They can be painted, stained, carved, engraved with a woodburning tool, and embellished in numerous ways,” Bowles said. “Perhaps my biggest seller are my wreaths, but they take a long time to craft as each wreath utilizes a lot of small gourds. I am self-taught with little to no formal training and I’m still trying to find my own style for creating unique pieces.”

She had thoughts of expanding her gourd acreage, but she said that might be a bit overwhelming.

“I only utilize a half-acre for growing my gourds” she said. “There are probably 50 varieties of gourds and I’ve grown about 20 of those varieties. There’s a lot you can do with gourds. I prefer to carve them, but I’ve used ink dye, leather dye or just paint them.”

As it is with any hobby, there’s pros and cons to what she’s doing.

“Insects during the growing process can be a problem, but so too are rodents,” she said. “Rodents are a huge problem when storing dried gourds. They love to chew through the outer shell to get to the seeds. This, of course, ruins the outer shell and prevents them from being used for crafting.”

According to Bowles, too little rain and the gourds don’t develop a needed thick shell. Too much rain at the end of the growing season will result in gourds taking on too much water, making them harder to dry and more likely to rot.

“Once dried and hardened, gourds last infinitely,” Bowles said. “I have a large stock of gourds. I only plant a few plants of each variety each year now. If I’m running low on one variety of gourd, I’ll plant more of those. There are likely 50 varieties of gourds and I grow 20 different varieties. I do have favorites, like basketball, cannonball, copper canyon, canteen and melon just to name a few, as well as several types of minis.”

Bowles attends and sells her creations at two major craft shows each year: Art in the Garden in Augusta, Ky. (first Saturday in June) and the Wool Festival in Falmouth (first weekend in October).

“The gourd continues to fascinate me from the time the seed germinates until it becomes a piece of art,” she said.