Like his tiny garden in Spring Hill, David Platek is odd, eccentric and yes, maybe even bananas.

But he also was a finalist in the 2004 Great Gardens Contest. He's proof that risk-taking gardeners can come up big in the annual competition sponsored by the Post-Gazette and Botanic Garden of Western Pennsylvania. Don't believe us? Ask Marie Tuma of Monaca. She was a co-winner in the small garden category last year for her wild assortment of tropical, subtropical and garden-variety plants, mostly grown in containers.

Monday is the entry deadline for the 2008 contest (For an entry form and rules, see Page C-7.) Mr. Platek, 58, has not entered this year, saying his garden is not at the level it was in 2004, when an 8-foot-tall banana tree was the centerpiece of his back yard. That's a shame, because the newer contest judges will never get to experience this funny little collection of plants and bric-a-brac lovingly assembled with lots of sweat and imagination but very little money.

"I'm not into gardening the way they like you to do it," he said this week. "I like it to be a little bit fun."

And who are "they"? Well, garden magazines, garden writers and just about anyone else who believes you have to garden by the rules. In growing hardy banana (Musa basjoo), Mr. Platek chose to ignore one of the most basic garden commandments: Thou shalt stick to your zone.

Hardy bananas -- the toughest of this family of tropical fruit trees -- are recommended for USDA Zones 7-10, while southwestern Pennsylvania is considered Zones 5b-6a. Of course, lots of gardeners grow tropicals as annuals, either in beds or containers. But few try to overwinter them, and even fewer attempt to multiply the plants the way Mr. Platek has.

Five years ago, he bought his first banana plant from Reilly's Summer Seat Farm in Ohio Township and planted it in a central bed, plying it with abundant water and horse manure from the Pittsburgh police stable. By October, it had reached 13 feet tall, with 5-foot-long leaves sticking out in every direction but no fruit (that comes the second year in its native climate). Around Halloween, he would cut the 6-inch diameter trunk down to about 3 feet, then pile straw bales or foam insulation board around the base. After several years, he had a dozen or more banana seedlings each spring.

This year, Mr. Platek decided to plant apple and cherry trees in that central bed. He transplanted several dozen banana trees onto city land that he's required to maintain in front of his house. He offered others for sale in the newspaper classifieds, asking $10 or $20 apiece. One man responded and bought two. The others have reached 5 feet, hanging over a guardrail at the end of the dead-end street like a tropical mirage.

You'd think a mini-banana grove in Pittsburgh might draw some curious eyes, but it's hard to compete with Mr. Platek's front yard. At its center is a homemade concrete statue of Jesus Christ with a hint of a sacred heart and two hands but no visible arms (Mr. Platek was afraid they'd break off). All around the statue are colorful annuals, perennials and weirdly pruned evergreens, including one with bulbous appendages jutting at odd angles like a huge spider on its back. Trimmed like a French poodle, these shrubs would look at home only in a Dr. Seuss book.

For years, Mr. Platek has prowled the garden centers of big-box stores, offering a few bucks or picking from the trash broken and misshapen shrubs and perennials that no regular gardener would want. Employees of Lowe's, Home Depot, Kmart and Wal-Mart know him well.

"They say, 'He's here again.' They know they'll have to call the manager because it's not going to be the normal price," Mr. Platek says proudly.

At first, he pruned balls, ovals and odd shapes into the foliage of spruces, arborvitae, junipers and others to disguise damage from neglect. Then he decided he liked the look. Now he must prune up to three times a season to keep them neat.

His funky topiaries fill the front, side and back yard of his ranch-style house. In the back yard, grass paths wind among beds anchored by evergreens, Japanese maples and fruit trees. Every gap is filled with hostas, peonies, irises, pachysandra, wintercreeper and other once-tattered perennials bought at a discount. Hanging from two small pergolas are yellow and orange trumpetvine and some of the dozen stuffed monkeys Mr. Platek bought at Goodwill for 50 cents apiece.

"I just did it for fun," he explains. "I'm a wheeler and a dealer."