The Home Crowd

And who’s showing more patriotism than this guy!  According to NBC San Diego, Eastlake resident Steve Pfeiffer, who works for the Navy, has 762 flags in the front yard, and another 270 in the Backyard.  Wow!

Not to be un-patriotic at all, but if this were also a ‘Where’s Waldo’ scene, I’d never spot the little guy in his red and white striped shirt.  -  Link to slideshow

Happy 4th of July!  And join me in praying that fireworks tonight won’t set fire to any more of California…

A Journalist for The Mirror UK, Julie McCaffrey recently spent some time with fellow Brit Richard Reynolds, the alpha guerrilla gardener, and owner of the website guerrillagardening.org.  Sneaking around under the cover of night, Reynolds shirks the laws and regulations regarding cultivating public lands.  And he’s not alone, since 2004, he’s collected more than 4000 members to his beautification movement.

But…why?

From The Mirror UK,

Four years ago, after moving from Devon to the concrete carbuncle of Elephant and Castle, Richard grew tired of seeing the raised flower-bed at his front door neglected and overgrown.

“I love gardening,” he explains. “I missed it since I moved to London and decided I couldn’t wait for the council. So I got off my a**e, dug up the flowerbed myself and planted cuttings my mum gave me.”

A dark corner that used to reek of urine now ripples with a variety of different colours and wafts with the sweet smell of lavender and sage.

The story goes on further to highlight frequent times that Reynolds and his crew almost get arrested, yet usually let off with a warning.  After all, who wants to be the cop that ensures public safety and welfare by getting a gardener off the streets, keeping the world safe, one rogue gardener at a time.  The neighbors are happy about the volunteer work being put into the neighborhood, and it gives a group of people a sense of accomplishment.  The only downside however is the law.  Cultivating public lands doesn’t seem so bad until you consider that, if not maintained, some of these pet projects may wither and die, leaving a weed-infested mess, and your local municipality on the hook to re-plant.  Or, perhaps, on a more ridiculous scale, how about a nice field of corn in the middle of your favorite park.  Everyone loves corn right?

So I was relieved to see this picture on Reynolds’ site, highlighting an improvement over the course of 2 years.

Only question I have is, what is a 30 year old man doing out at all hours of the night gardening?  Shouldn’t he be at the local pub?  And what fuels his jolly band of volunteers to get their hands in the dirt in pitch darkness?  My guess would be meth.

I doubt this’ll catch on here in the states though, and here’s why…

• Anyone referring to themselves as a “Guerrilla” with 4000 followers breaking the law under the cover of night would possibly find themselves tending to the gardens of guantanamo bay.

• Immigrants.  Right now they have the landscaping market cornered as a low-paying job that most of us don’t want.  But if you’re out there, doing it for free, for your own self-gratification, and in the cool night air instead of the scorching heat of summer…. you may spend the rest of your days ever suspicious that there’s a thirty year old pickup truck laden with rakes in your rear view mirror.

I’m not even sure where I came across this, likely saved from one of those e-mails that are forwarded again and again.  But it’s both hilarious and impressive.  Seems like there’s a couple of access points, likely from the garage and also that fake boulder in the yard.  I’m sure under one of the neighboring boulders, you’ll find a spare key to the house.  And what is that?  Is that a vault door?

And what a terrible choice for a garden.  No wonder they hid it underground, no flowers to speak of.  They must have hidden their “garden” to avoid their friends and neighbors laughing at them.  However, after the homeowner was put away, for what I’m certain would be an extremely long sentence, I’d love to see what happened to their subterranean getaway.  More than likely, it was filled in, but with a little proper reinforcement, I’m sure it could find another use.

• Home theater? (Crank up that movie as loud as you want, gophers can’t complain, if anything, they up and move away…. Double bonus!)
• Kids play room? (Oh no, not completely unsupervised, get one of those security cameras!  See anything hilarious?  Save and upload to Youtube)
• Guest room? (For unwanted guests!  And just to punctuate the point, keep a proper guest room in the house, with windows and proper ventilation and heating and such, yet dump your unwanted guest underground.  Next time, they’ll find a proper hotel.)

• Game room? (Oh no, not pinball and billiards, we’re talking archery, paintball, indoor shooting range.  You know?  All the fun things you’d do in your backyard if not for the neighbors having you arrested.)

Hmm… I’m not sure how they got caught, but I’d definitely be tipped off if someone happened to purchase 200 white buckets from the hardware store.

Frenchman Gerard Brion has spent the last 15 years re-creating the city of lights in his garden using junk, such as scrap wood, concrete blocks, and tin cans.

And apparently from the picture above, he has a great affection for congested traffic. Looks more like the ‘city of headlights’!

According to the Sun UK, Gerard is 29, which meant he began his hobby at 14 years of age?? Wow. I did see the picture of him on their article, and he looks damn near 45. Also, he probably still lives at home if he began this in his adolescence , but it’s a fun pic of him posing with the Eiffel tower within a terrific accomplishment (Not pictured: Wife, social life, disgruntled parents due to tourists in their yard)

How is this relevant? I’m filing it under “Landscaping”

More pics here at Linternaute, and a short article, but great slideshow at The Sun UK. (And yes, I do believe that is a spider-man action figure atop the Eiffel Tower on the main pic at The Sun article)

He might as well, it doesn’t seem as if he’ll be driving anywhere soon.

After recent rains near the Illinois river. Good thing is, he built on a high spot.

(From Bits & Pieces)