If you lost someone you loved, wouldn't you want to create something to honour their memory?

That's what drove Pedro Ureta, an Argentinian farmer, to plant an entire forest in the shape of an acoustic guitar. He created it to honour his wife, who died tragically at the age of 25.

Back in the mid-70s, Ureta's wife Graciela was flying over fields near their farm and saw a shape that looked like a milk pail. She suggested to Pedro that they could embed a design into their own fields, and he liked the idea. But the couple was always too busy to put the idea into practice.

In 1977, Graciela died unexpectedly of a brain aneurysm. Pedro was crushed. A few years later, he started working on designs for a guitar - one of his wife's favourite instruments - that would be visible from above.

Pedro planted the forest himself, using mostly cypress trees for the outline and blue eucalyptus trees for the "strings" on the instrument's neck. The finished design is clearly visible to anyone who flies over the Pampas, the fertile lowland area of Argentina where he lives.

Although he designed and planted it, Pedro himself has never seen his guitar from above. He's afraid of flying, so he's only ever seen photographs.

Pedro Ureta's not the only farmer who has used his fields to pay tribute to a lost love. Winston Howes, a farmer in Gloucestershire, England, lost his wife Janet suddently in 1995. After her death, he planted oak trees in a field, creating a heart-shaped space in the middle with the point aiming toward the place where his wife grew up.

You can see Winston's work below.

Related stories on Strombo.com:

Earth From Above