Highline Botanical garden

Monday morning, Memorial Day, we wanted a destination walk, but we wanted to stay close to home. We chose North SeaTac Park for walking, and started out with a stroll through the Highline Botanical Garden in the park. 

This area, the park and the garden and the Community Center, were all developed in the clear zone when houses were removed in advance of construction of the third runway at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. 

This botanical garden was the answer to what to do about Elda Behm's Paradise Garden, a private garden and nursery at her home in an area to be cleared for the new runway.  Volunteers spent many hours and days and months moving many of Elda's mature plants from her garden to this location. They nursed them along, raised funds, and eventualy built a stream and pond water feature. 

The garden has been added to as the older plants settled in. Elda has passed on now, but not before she saw this dream realized. This is Elda Behm's legacy.

Along side Elda's garden is a rose garden.

A bed of day lilies will soon burst into bloom.

There is bed for an iris collection.

Down the hill is another rescued garden. 

The Seike Japanese Garden was created by the family that owned the Des Moines Way Nursery. It too had to go to make way for airplanes. 

The garden was painstakingly recreated here. 

After this lovely beginning to the day, we walked the trails of North SeaTac Park and accumulated about three miles before heading home, where we spent most of the rest of the day working in our own garden.