SHERIDAN, OR. - Backyard Living Magazine featured JPJ Instructor Joe Aderson's "Hobbit Hole" in their August-September 2007 issue. Read the full article below.

Fit for a Hobbit

By Ken Wysocky for Backyard Living Magazine

Bilbo Baggins himself would feel at home in this Arizona reader's cheerful “Hobbit hole.”

As he watched the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in a theater for the sixth time, Joe Andersen experienced an epiphany about what to do with his largely empty backyard in Chandler, Arizona.

“It came like a flash of light – I'll build a Hobbit hole,” chuckles the civil engineer and fan of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic classic.

Today, some 5 years later, the centerpiece of Andersen's once-vacant backyard is a Hobbit hole, a replica of the underground abodes beloved by Hobbits (the fictitious “Little People” of Middle-earth).  Surrounded by shrubs, trees and cheery flowers, the hole is a replica of the one shown on the silver screen – right down to the distinctive round door favored by Hobbits.

To get it right, Joe often inserted one of the Rings movies in a DVD player and put it on pause so he could study architectural details.  The result is so realistic, you half expect the trilogy's heroes Frodo Baggins and his relative, Bilbo to bound through the door at any moment.

The Hobbit hole occupies roughly 600 square feet of Joe's backyard.  It's build with a custom mix of lightweight concrete, made with pumice stone, polypropylene fibers, sand and cement.  The resulting mixture met his need for a light, strong and flexible material.

Centered on a Circle

After Joe created two large piles of dirt with a borrowed front-end loader, he headed to a local junkyard in search of a critical component: a round steel ring that would serve as a door frame.  Along with providing a strong visual focal point, the door was Joe's starting point for construction – everything else flowed from it.

“I found one in 5 minutes,” Joe recalls.  I was totally flabbergasted.  It was like it was meant to be.”

With the door-frame dilemma solved, Joe built a 2-foot-high and 6- to 12-inch-thick foundation out of concrete.  He then constructed a framework out of rebar for the 2-inch-thick walls.  To that, he affixed sheets of Styrofoam (he'd pluck them from a trash bin located outside a furniture store) wrapped in chicken wire.  Next, he slathered the lightweight concrete mixture onto the chicken wire.

The last steps included finishing the 120-square-foot interior, which features a ceiling with faux wood beams, and landscaping.  Joe chose plants that could withstand Arizona's extreme climate – up to 120º in summer, and winter frosts.  And because Hobbits are avid gardeners, he also wanted plants that reflected the colorful, peaceful ambiance of the Shire, the land of the Hobbits.

For annuals, Joe selected African daisies (which reseed themselves every year), petunias, alyssum and hollyhocks, plus vegetables and fruits such as bush sweet peas, cabbage, watermelon and black-eyed peas.  Perennials included cat's claw, climbing fig vines and 'Hearts and Flowers,' a hardy succulent plant.

For shrubs and trees, Joe planted honeysuckle, ficus, lantana, sissoo (or Indian rosewood), Raywood ash, Brazilian pepper tree, Chinese pistache and rosemary, which, he says, makes for an attractive, drought-resistant hedge.

Labor of Love

It took Joe 5 years to complete his project.  In fact, because he could work on it only sporadically, there was a time it remained untouched for 1-1/2 years, he admits.

“And then other nights, I'd be out there working until 11 p.m.,” he recalls.

The materials cost him roughly $1,000, and he kept other costs down by borrowing heavy equipment owned by family members.  The reaction he gets from friends and family, however – especially his 3-year-old son, Shereen, who use the Hobbit hole as a playhouse – is priceless.

“My wife, Karen, looks outside and says it just feels good,” he relates.  “When people see it for the first time, they're like, 'Wow, that looks great.  It looks happy.'”

So what's next on the backyard to-do list?  Creating small areas that mimic Rivendell, an Elf haven, and the mines of Moria, a Dwarf stronghold.  Think of them as landscaping sequels of sorts – Shire-inspired slices of Middle-earth in the making.

Download article as it appeared in Backyard Living Magazine (530k)