Pedro Martin Ureta’s labour of love is a memorial to Graciela Yraizoz, who loved the guitar and asked him to design the instrument on their farmland in Laboulaye, Argentina.
But, tragically she died in 1977 while carrying their fifth child before it could come to fruition.
So, after her death, Mr Ureta and their four children planted every tree individually to create the stunning wood.
The guitar stretches for two thirds of a mile and is so large that it has to be seen from the sky but Mr Ureta has never seen the full design because he is afraid of flying.
He started the project in 1979, two years after Graciela died. She suffered a ruptured cerebral aneurysm during her fifth pregnancy and died aged just 25.
Graciela first suggested the idea after flying over land and noticing that a farm looked a bit like a milking pail.
Their son Ezequiel, 36, said his father was too busy at the time with work to take her plans seriously.
However, after she died Mr Ureta said he regretted not fulfilling her wish.
Daughter Soledad told the Washington Post: ’He used to talk about regrets, and it was clear he regretted not having listened to my mother about the guitar.’
Mr Ureta’s children said he regretted not taking Graciela’s idea seriously and so spent years cultivating the forest as a memorial to her and he and his family planted each of the 7,000 trees individually
The tribute has been captured by satellite images but Mr Ureta has not seen it because he is scared of flying
She said once they started the project all the children including elder brother Ignacio and sister Maria Julia, would line up three meters apart and plant the trees where they stood.
The family used cypress trees to create the star-shaped sound hole and the outline of the instrument and planted rows is composed of cypress trees to form the strings.
They had to replant the saplings many times because they were eaten by hares and wild guinea pigs but eventually the trees began to grow.
Maria Julia, 39, told the Washington Post: ’It was the closest thing possible to having my mother alive.’
Although Mr Ureta, now 70, who also has an 11-year-old daughter with his second partner Maria de los Angeles Ponzi, has never seen the full scale of the forest from the sky, he has seen the pictures.
Labour of love: Winston Howes planted thousands of oak trees but left a heart as a tribute to his wife Janet
A farmer in the UK created a similar tribute to his wife, who died suddenly in 1995.
Winston Howes planted thousands of oak saplings in a six-acre field in Wickwar, Gloucestershire, but left a heart-shaped meadow in the middle with the point facing towards his wife Janet’s childhood home.
It has since grown into a peaceful oasis where he says he can remember his wife of 33 years.
