DIY Network Crashes Walt Disney World

DIY Network Crashes Walt Disney World

Licensed Landscape Contractor Ahmed Hassan and 300 Horticulturists Crash
Epcot® International Flower & Garden Festival at  Walt Disney World Resort

Licensed landscape contractor Ahmed Hassan normally surprises unsuspecting homeowners at the local home improvement store with a complete transformation of their own yard on DIY Network’s hit show Yard Crashers. But in DIY Network’s one-hour special, Yard Crashers: Disney Epcot on Monday, April 27 at 9 p.m. ET, he’ll take viewers on an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at one of the largest and most famous yards in America – the Epcot® International Flower & Garden FestivalWalt Disney World Resort.
 
In Yard Crashers: Disney Epcot, Howard and Julie Callendar and their two teenage sons, Ian and Drake of Orangevale, Calif., work with Hassan to crash their own corner of Walt Disney World and give viewers a taste of how it is transformed into a 300-acre garden oasis, filled with over 30 million blooms during the Epcot® International Flower & Garden Festival
 
“The treat for me when it comes to hosting Yard Crashers is having the chance to surprise unsuspecting shoppers with a complete yard transformation and teach them a little of what I know,” said Hassan. “Then this opportunity comes with Disney where I was able to surprise a lucky homeowner and his family with a trip to Disney World to ‘crash’ the International Flower & Garden Festival.” He continued, “I get to do what I love at the happiest place on earth.”
 
Hassan joins 300 Disney horticulturists as they work around the clock, preparing 100 floating mini-gardens, 45 “flower towers,” 750 container gardens, 300,000 bedding plants, 50 Disney character topiaries (including the overnight production of the Mickey and Minnie topiary creations) and many more elements to transform the park into a colorful landscape haven full of gardens and massive topiaries. Hassan and his accomplices, the Callendar family, construct Lush Xeriscapes, a low-water xeriscape garden complete with a gazebo and a big-screen television. The garden, located in the Imagination Walkways section of Epcot®, will let viewers and park visitors learn how they can also build incredible landscapes and conserve their water use at the same time.
 
Encore presentations of Yard Crashers: Disney Epcot will air on Thursday, April 30 at 9 p.m. ET, Saturday, May 2 at 8 a.m. ETand Sunday, May 3 at 7 p.m. ET on DIY Network. For more information about Ahmed Hassan, Yard Crashers and other DIY Network shows and experts, please visit http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/tv. DIY Network is available nationwide on DIRECTV Ch. 230 and DISH Network, Ch. 111. Check local listings for additional cable channel designations or visit www.diynetwork.com/tv.

-- Posted April 24, 2009