Argentine Farmer Makes Giant Guitar with 7,000 Trees

Pedro Martin Ureta, an Argentine farmer from General Levalle, has used 7,000 cypress and eucalyptus trees to create a giant guitar in memory of his late wife, Graciela.

Seeing this incredible design for the first time, I bet the first thing that comes to mind is “Photoshop”, but this one’s for real, folks. 70-year-old Ureta embedded this carefully planned design into his farm many years ago, and maintains it in honor of his wife, Graciela Yraizoz, who died in 1977, when she was only 25.

Mr. Ureta met Graciela in the 1960s, when he returned home after traveling to Europe, where he spent a lot of time with artists and revolutionaries. He was 28 when he first saw this beautiful 17-year-old girl and soon decided he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Despite the priest’s reluctant attitude, thinking Pedro wasn’t committed enough to loving Ms. Yraizoz all his life, the two got married and proved extremely devoted to each other.

Photo by MDZ Online via Infobae

One day, while flying over the pampa, Graciela saw a farm that she thought looked a lot like a milking pail, and that’s when she started talking about designing their own farm in the shape of a guitar, the musical instrument she loved so much. Back then, young Pedro Martin Ureta was very busy with his own plans and kept telling his wife they’d talk about it later. Sadly, Graciela didn’t have much more time, and one day in 1977 she just collapsed; she had suffered a ruptured cerebral aneurysm and died shortly after, while carrying what would have been their fifth child.

Photo via 24CON

After this great tragedy, Mr. Ureta kept talking about how he regretted not listening to Graciela about the guitar, until a few years later when he decided to fulfill his late wife’s dream. He consulted a number of landscapers, but none of them were interested in such a daring endeavor, so the farmer just had to do it himself. He says “you just put a guitar in front of you and begin to take measurements and study proportions,” but actually planting the tree guitar required a family effort. His kids would stand in a row, three meters apart, and the farm hands would plant trees in those exact spots, after which they re-formed the line in another position and more trees were planted.

Most of the guitar, including the body and star-shaped hole were designed using cypress trees, and for the strings, Mr. Ureta used the bluish tones of eucalyptus trees. But planting and ensuring the saplings grew in peace was even tougher than planting them in the right spots. Hares and guinea pigs ravaged the area, and Ureta was just about to give up when he got the bright idea to use scrap metal and place protective sleeves around the young trees.

Photo via Unosantafe

Mr. Ureta watched the tree guitar and his four children grow at the same time, and only engaged in a relationship with another woman long after his beloved Graciela passed away. During the 1990s, he began seeing Maria de los Angeles Ponzi, who runs the town pharmacy, and even if they never got married, they have an 11-year-old daughter. She thinks Pedro’s tribute is beautiful.

Believe it or not, Pedro Martin Ureta has never seen his incredible creaation from the sky, except in photographs, because he is afraid of flying.