#kcmogourden

[missouri-gourden]

CLICK HERE for a video showing how to weave a shekere

CLICK HERE to see the garden house weathering a storm on the longest day of 2019

images © Maria Ogedengbe

[studio-mariaogedengbe]

Autumn 2020: flowering beans and gourds atop the roof of Missouri GOURDen attract pollinators Support Missouri GOURDen, a community arts & gardening project at 48th & Troost in Kansas City MO. Garden with us or contribute to the virtual tip jar through paypal.me/studiomariaO or via Google Pay to [email protected] ~ thank you !   The “GOURDzebo” is located at 48th & Troost in Kansas City, Missouri. Looking for photos of Missouri GOURDen on social ?  #kcmoGOURDen Missouri GOURDen -  a.k.a. “the GOURDzebo” - is a project of the studio of artist Maria Ogedengbe.

image © Maria Ogedengbe

[missouri-gourden]

2020: Missouri GOURDen, bearing fruit When we raised the trial gourd garden at Longfellow Farm in 2016, it seemed like the trellis was suddenly in bloom one Monday in July - so beautiful. And then the Cucumber beetles descended. From then on most blooms had been munched to nil by the time gardeners arrived any morning. The story was pretty much the same with Missouri GOURDen, sited in Kauffman Legacy Park, in the years that followed... So 2020 seemed like a good year for crop rotation, to take a break from raising gourds so the proliferating pests would die off. But when one unmistakable little Bottle gourd volunteer, “Gourdy,” showed its leaves we just had to let it grow. What’s a GOURDen without a gourd ?

Support Missouri GOURDen, a community arts & gardening project at 48th & Troost in Kansas City MO. Garden with us or contribute to the virtual tip jar through paypal.me/studiomariaO or via Google Pay to [email protected] ~ thank you !   The “GOURDzebo” is located at 48th & Troost in Kansas City, Missouri. Looking for photos of Missouri GOURDen on social ?  #kcmoGOURDen Missouri GOURDen is a project of the studio of artist Maria Ogedengbe.

image © Maria Ogedengbe

[missouri-gourden]

Autumn 2020: Missouri GOURDen turns out its purple... Purple hyacinth bean atop and the bushy New England aster to the side. At first the idea for 2020 was crop rotation, but when a volunteer Bottle gourd popped up we didn’t have the heart to weed it out. It’s quite amazing to see how far this one vine has traveled over the structure, and it’s still blooming into October. It has yielded four gourds which seems like few... In a crop rotation year the Cucumber beetle population is minimal - though these are our greatest pests they’re also pollinators ~ Support Missouri GOURDen, a community arts & gardening project at 48th & Troost in Kansas City MO. Garden with us or contribute to the virtual tip jar through paypal.me/studiomariaO or via Google Pay to [email protected] ~ thank you !   The “GOURDzebo” is located at 48th & Troost in Kansas City, Missouri. Looking for photos of Missouri GOURDen on social ?  #kcmoGOURDen Missouri GOURDen is a project of the studio of artist Maria Ogedengbe. image © Maria Ogedengbe

[studio-mariaogedengbe]

2020, a quiet Summer: Missouri GOURDen is situated in Kauffman Legacy Park, behind the Kauffman Community Gardens orchard stretches south to Brush Creek. Beyond a series of raised garden beds to the west are trails around a pond, pavilion, and the nature sanctuary overseen by the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Discovery Center staff. The GOURDen and the park are an interesting crossroads, people from different walks of life pass through every day. It seems the pandemic has coaxed everyone out of doors and into nature - the park is a lively place where people garden, walk dogs, jog, or stroll with a friend or family. For most the park is a place for leisure. Yet the reality is that in hard times its remote corners probably serve as home for some, at least during the balmy summer. Missouri GOURDen’s three wide, open doors welcome visitors from all directions, from all walks of life. It’s an open meeting place in the out-of-doors. Support Missouri GOURDen, a community arts & gardening project at 48th & Troost in Kansas City MO. Garden with us or contribute to the virtual tip jar through paypal.me/studiomariaO or via Google Pay to [email protected] ~ thank you !   The “GOURDzebo” is located at 48th & Troost in Kansas City, Missouri. Looking for photos of Missouri GOURDen on social ?  #kcmoGOURDen Missouri GOURDen -  a.k.a. “the GOURDzebo” - is a project of the studio of artist Maria Ogedengbe.

image © Maria Ogedengbe

[missouri-gourden]

Support Missouri GOURDen, a community arts & gardening project at 48th & Troost in Kansas City MO. Garden with us or contribute to the virtual tip jar through paypal.me/studiomariaO or via Google Pay to [email protected] ~ thank you ! 

The “GOURDzebo” is located at 48th & Troost in Kansas City, Missouri. Looking for photos of Missouri GOURDen on social ?  #kcmoGOURDen Missouri GOURDen -  a.k.a. “the GOURDzebo” - is a project of the studio of artist Maria Ogedengbe.

image © Maria Ogedengbe

[studio-mariaogedengbe]

Support Missouri GOURDen, a community arts & gardening project at 48th & Troost in Kansas City MO. Garden with us or contribute to the virtual tip jar through paypal.me/studiomariaO or via Google Pay to [email protected] ~ thank you ! The “GOURDzebo” is located at 48th & Troost in Kansas City, Missouri. Looking for photos of Missouri GOURDen on social ? #kcmoGOURDen Missouri GOURDen is a project of the studio of artist Maria Ogedengbe.

image © Maria Ogedengbe

[missouri-gourden]

pictured: posters with an image of Missouri GOURDen “GOURDzebo” in late September, 2019

CLICK HERE to download a printable copy of this poster Missouri GOURDen is a community garden where we’ve been raising gourds up and over an artistic garden house with the goal of making shekere instruments from the gourds. All are welcome to visit !

Along with gourds we’ve raised other types of flowering vines, plus herbs, radishes, and a grassy plant that bears a naturally occurring bead that can be used, along with the dried gourds, for making shekeres. Missouri GOURDen is a project of the studio of Maria Ogedengbe.

Missouri GOURDen is sited at 48th & Troost by the Anita Gorman Discovery Center - a nature center offering free programming. An orchard planted by the Giving Grove is just behind the GOURDen. Pathways lead through the orchard, walkways extend around ponds, and disabled accessible nature trails with interpretive signage are just west of the Discovery Center.  

For more information: [email protected], [phone], missouri-gourden.tumblr.com The Missouri GOURDen project is partnered with Kansas City Community Gardens, and the project has received grants from ArtsKC & additional support from many others - thank you, all !

image © Maria Ogedengbe