Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden

History: Paradise Garden

Paradise Garden | Elda Behm | Highline Area

"The Desert": The garden circa 1965. The weeping white pine (Pinus strobus pendula) in the gallon pot at the corner of the patio is now a gorgeous specimen.

Elda and Ray Behm (pronounced as in "Beam me up, Scotty") moved into their 'Paradise Garden' in the mid-1960s. As the photo shows, the garden was hardly a paradise to begin with. Some have referred to this photo as "the desert." A crabapple was plopped in the center of south lawn, a few camellias were leaning aimlessly against the house, and a hedge of shrubby Lonicera (honeysuckle) separated the house from the street.

Elda mapped out the beds following the advice of a friend who recommended bending the paths to add an element of mystery, and never letting the paths "dead end". Using a garden hose and a shovel, Elda designed a sinuous path system that, as garden maven and KIRO AM radio host Ciscoe Morris points out, offers "a surprise around every corner." Edging the borders is a 1000 foot journey into beauty.

Thirty plus years later, Elda's garden was indeed Paradise. It wasa green oasis in an ever-expanding desert, as properties have been purchased by the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to make room for a proposed third runway. Read on to learn the story of Elda's garden, and what activists have done to save a local horticultural treasure!

A Labor of Love
After preparing the soil, Elda began planting things she grew from cuttings, seed, and divisions. Already an experienced gardener, for over 20 years Elda had cultivated 4 acres of property near the 5 Corners area in Burien. Many plants were begged from friends, hunted down at plant sales, or swapped for plants from Elda's growing collection. As Elda points out, "If you love plants people give you things, trade things with you...you can't help but end up with more."

Ray's father was a nurseryman in the Vancouver, Washington area. Many rhododendrons came from his inventory when he closed down shop. When another neighbor with a large rhody collection moved out of the area, Elda graciously offered to provide a home for the orphaned Ericaceae. Since the area has a high water table Elda has struggled mightily to grow members of this genus, using berms, drain pipe, and a bit of love and gardener's magic to coax her impressive collection along.

Shortly after moving in, she begged a local nurseryman to sell her 5 small cutleaf Japanese maples (Acer palmatum), but he refused, saying the grafts were too fresh. Elda explained that she was a "pretty good gardener" -- 4 of the 5 still thrive, anchoring the garden with their muscular forms.

Plants came from everywhere. For trips to visit a daughter in Arkansas, Elda constructed a reinforced suitcase which she "crammed with plants to take to my daughter", then loaded up at the Arkansas end of the trip with Sweet Gums, Halesias, Daylilies, and whatever else the groaning suitcase would accommodate. At plant sales and garden shows, the diminutive Elda waded into the trenches to fight for treasures she "just had to have".

Ray Becomes the House Chef
With the eye of a designer and the energy of a youth (she was nearing her 60s when this garden began taking shape), Elda worked over 30 years to transform her 'Paradise Garden.' Turning a suburban tract lot into a glorious four season display of the world's horticultural treasures. Elda spent so much time in her garden she often jokes that "Ray had to learn to cook." If Ray's culinary efforts were half as spectacular as Elda's horticultural results, dinner invitations to the Behm household must have been accepted with glee.

Ray's skills as an electrical and civil engineer were useful in keeping the garden infrastructure up and running, including the construction of a bewildering labyrinth of greenhouses and outbuildings. His biggest contribution may be his role as Elda's chauffeur, squiring her back and forth to various garden opens, garden club meetings, plants sales, and so forth. When one of the other horticulture widowers asked what was in it for him, Ray responded that he has learned to develop an eye for detail and to appreciate beauty in things he hadn't previously noticed. His collection of home videos of the garden is amazing. A great gift indeed!

While Ray's father's nursery skills didn't filter through to Ray, the next generation of Behms are 66% garden-crazy, with daughters Diane and Barbara both being avid plantswomen. Daughter Barbara is an Arkansas plant fanatic, who, according to a frowning Elda, "Spends all her money on plants." Son Jerry is an airplane enthusiast who, as Elda notes with a bewildered grin, "hires out his gardening." Elda and the family helped install Jerry's garden by "gutting an RV and stuffing it full of plants and driving to California." A seven foot Cedrus deodora made the trip south in the RV's latrine. Jerry was "blessed" with soil that is essentially adobe clay. Elda thought the situation hopeless until she discovered a local paddock with "beautiful, 10 year old horse compost." Jerry's garden has long been the envy of the neighborhood.

The Future
SeaTac Airport's proposed third runway means Elda's property was slated for demolition and bulldozing. Beginning in 1996, Burien City Councilmember and local gardening guru Stephen Lamphear began to negotiate with the Airport and local municipalities in an effort to save the garden. By 1997, the Airport and the City of SeaTac agreed in writing that a community-owned botanical garden was a good idea. The Highline Botanical Garden Foundation (a 501(c)(3) charity) was then created to build and operate the new garden. The Highline Botanical Garden is owned, maintained and supported by its members and supporters through the Foundation.

The Dream Becomes Reality
After two years of searching for an appropriate relocation site, success came on July 27, 1999. The SeaTac City Council authorized construction of the new botanical garden on vacant land adjacent to the North SeaTac Community Center at S. 138th and 24th Ave. S. In January 2000, the Foundation and the City entered into a Joint Operating Agreement providing the legal framework for garden development. A related Memorandum of Understanding between the City and the Airport has also been executed for the garden's construction. While located on public land, taxes will not support the financial needs of owning and maintaining this large community garden.

Construction on the new Botanical Garden began in April, 2000. The first phases to be developed are a redesigned entry for the Community Center and a new Elda Behm Paradise Garden, honoring Elda's long gardening history -- both using her plants as the backbone. Elda's plants were relocated during the winter of 2000/2001 and work continues on the new garden site, scheduled to open in Fall of 2001. Click on News for the latest developments.

What's ahead requires money and people. Money -- for equipment and materials to rebuild a 30 year history of serious home gardening. People -- to coordinate activities, maintain the garden, support the garden's financial needs. We will succeed if we want to.

A Postscript
On Mother's Day, May 14, 2000, Ray Behm passed away quietly at the age of 90. The family has requested remembrances be made in the form of gifts to the Highline Botanical Garden Foundation to support the plant for building a new 'Paradise Garden'.