Garish Gardens and Outlandish Lawns
(Willow Creek Press, 1998)
Pink flamingoes, elves and gnomes, whirligigs, windmills and wishing
wells, ceramic geese and plastic ducks, oh my! Sophisticated lawn and
garden magazines might pretend (or prefer) such anomalies don’t exist,
but this seasoned author/photographer team know better. Their research
has revealed that, from coast to coast, countless Americans have a love
and a penchant for decorating their yards with gizmos that turn the
hair of professional landscapers white.
This is the vividly illustrated story of America’s most garish gardens
and lawns and the individualistic group of nationwide yard enthusiasts
who recognize themselves in its pages. More importantly, says the
author, “It’s also for the compulsive lawn-edgers like myself who
wouldn’t dare drive the metal legs of a pink flamingo into the lawn,
but delight in those who do."
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From pg. 17
The Flamingo King: The Man Who Started it All
“Before plastics, only rich people could afford to have poor taste.”
– Donald Featherstone
Picture yourself as a contestant on the old Password television game
show. You are receiving clues. Your partner whispers: “Tacky…”
You think you know the answer but you hesitate. Then your partner
slowly enunciates another clue, “Plastic…”
“Pink flamingo!” you shout, winning the game.
Tacky goes with pink plastic yard flamingo like butter goes with
popcorn. Since its introduction in 1957, the pink plastic bird has
evolved into the icon of lawn ornaments.
Why do we love them so? Union Products, a plastics manufacturer in
Leominster, Massachusetts, sells about a half million each year.
Between 15 and 20 million have been sold since they were introduced.
Surely some of us are buying them as a joke. To “flamingo” someone’s
yard, perhaps?
But the rest of us must like them. It’s simple mathematics.
As to the pink flamingo’s longevity, Nancy Featherstone has a theory:
“It’s good design,” she says. “You can’t argue with that.”
Nancy is married to Donald Featherstone, the man who created the pink
plastic yard flamingo.
“Imagine telling other wives that at cocktail parties,” she says.
Her husband is a tall, affable man with a businessman’s
parted-on-the-side haircut. He has an easy smile and a quick chuckle.
In 1957, he graduated from The School of the Worcester Art Museum then
immediately got a job with Union Products, the only place he has ever
worked. The flamingo was his second assignment.
“I made a duck first,” he says, “which actually sells more.”
But of course it was the flamingo that put the proverbial “feather” in
his “stone.” He originally sculpted the flamingo o
ut of clay, borrowing poses from the famous “flock of flamingos” National Geographic
photograph…
From pg. 61
Hey! I Could Make a Planter out of That!
A rose is a rose is a rose. Even an artificial one? The answer would
have to be yes. As anyone with any sense of style knows, it’s not the
daffodil but what one does with it.
A flower stuck in the right place in just the right way gets a lot of
play. In the movies, a detective is told to look for the man wearing
the red carnation on his lapel. A man falls in love at first sight with
a woman wearing a single gardenia in her hair. A young lover doing the
tango holds a single rose in his teeth. Dramatic scenes, all….
From pg. 107
Spare Parts
Don’t ask Todd Rumquist to go bowling. First, he doesn’t bowl and
second, it would be a bad idea because the temptation would be too
great.
Todd, who lives in Safety Harbor, Florida, with his long-time
girlfriend, Kiaralinda, has some 300 bowling balls in his yard.
“I guess it just started on a whim,” Todd said…
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| What the Critics Say about Garish Gardens |
What the Critics Say about Garish Gardens and Outlandish Lawns:
USA Today: “Inspirational.”
Publisher’s Weekly: “…unforeseen empathy toward the impulse to meddle
with mother nature.”
Entertainment Weekly: “Here’s to the reflecting balls, pink flamingoes,
ceramic geese, planters made of old
bathtubs, and plywood cutouts of
urinating children that are our national heritage.”
Booklist: “Poor taste is what this delightful book is all about.”
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. If the
front yard has some outrageous stuff, the back yard usually is even
better.”
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