You say you're right on the edge, I thought everything in Iowa was on a terrace! At least that's what it looked like when we drove across Iowa last week!!

Yes, you can plant them as you would pumpkins or squash. Similar distances, hills, etc. You can let the vines trail on the ground, or on some sort of trellis.
DH and I laughed about planting gourds on the terraces, wondering what it might look like!!
Hope we can be helpful to you here on the gourd forum.
Glad you stopped in.

Jan

Last years crop was my first. I am in NW Iowa and all though I have a few seeds in the ground (just to see if they come up) I will plant the rest in 2 weeks. I had many good ones, but my bushels and bigger ones did not make it as good as say bottles, dippers, penguin, and the rest of the medium size and smaller ones did.
Our weather here is always alittle different this time of year and you never know when frost will come.

Sandy

I live in NW Iowa (up by Spencer) and we just started planting pumpkins yesterday. You can start planting your gourd seeds anytime. I mound up a nice pile of soil and plant 4 seeds per hill and will add compost through out the summer around hill. You can plant your gourds with your pumpkins and it won't hurt them. The gourds will be about the last thing you will pick in the fall as they take a LONG time to complete their growing. I let my cure on the vine and then take them in the late fall.
The smaller gourds or long bottle neck gourds do great on fences. Just make sure you have a sturdy fence as the vine gets heavy when loaded down with gourds. They dry much faster on vines that have run up fence.
Good luck to you
Sue