Bishopville, SC (WLTX) - Exciting news for Lee County's Pearl Fryar - he won the National Garden Clubs' Award of Excellence for his topiary garden in Bishopville.
"Sometimes I wonder what they're coming and looking at," Fryar joked about his garden.
Fryar's garden has been here for decades.
"I moved here in '81 and I started to garden," Fryar said.
If you ask Fryar, he'll tell you he never had big goals for the garden.
"My goal when I started my garden was to win Yard of the Month," Fryar said chuckling.
The chuckles come because the 77-year-old man with no gardening experience was awarded the Award of Excellence, the National Garden Clubs' highest honor, last Thursday.
Fryar's garden, where the birds always seem to sing, is largely made up of discarded plants.
"Eighty percent of these plants came out of the recycle pile," I went from throw away plants... to this."
Fryar was guest of honor at the Columbia Garden Club's meeting, and they say the award couldn't go to anyone more deserving.
"He takes a tree and just carves these fantastic designs," said Alice Tutley. "You go from one spot to another spot and just go, 'ah, oh!'"
Although the garden is still all Fryar's creations, now he's got a little help.
"I'm getting old, no, I'm old," Fryar said. "I need somebody full time, and then someday I'm just going to have to walk away from it."
But until that day comes, Fryar says he'll still be out there and he'll always know the legacy he'll leave behind.
"And I'm proud of that," Fryar said.