Jackson Free Press

On Wednesday, The New York Times featured Felder Rushing, local horticulturist extraordinaire and host of Mississippi Public Broadcasting's "The Gestalt Gardener," in a piece titled "Slow, Easy, Cheap and Green."

Rushing … sat in his lush front garden on a chair made of recycled bike tires. In the distance, a mower could be heard running at a neighbor's home, a low buzz cutting through the quiet.

Mr. Rushing, dressed in jeans and a guayabera shirt, his long gray hair tucked into a hat, looked at his grassless yard and smiled. "I'm sitting out in the sun like a fat old lizard," he said, "and they're sweating and huffing and puffing."

Can't you just hear him? "The Gestalt Gardener" is on MPB every Friday. Until then, here's more from the Times piece:

At first glance, Mr. Rushing's yard décor strikes a visitor as a maximalist hodgepodge of salvaged materials and junky doodads. There are several bottle trees (one is made of Bud Light bottles) and rusty I-beams stuck in the ground. In a far corner, a female mannequin rests on a chair, nude but for a silver cape and a wide-brimmed red hat. The entire space is encased by a fence of corrugated tin designed to thwart rubberneckers. "I'm not a snob, but I'm outside in my bathrobe a lot, and in the mornings I look like Jesus' drunk brother," he said.

Make sure to read the whole story.

Previous Comments

ID

145210

Comment

The photos accompanying the story are by local photographer James Patterson. An interesting story about an interesting guy. I especially loved the "fat old lizard" description. Felder is inspiring me to look at junk with a fresh eye.

Author

Jennifer2

Date

2009-03-28T11:50:27-06:00