Greg Butler, manager of the Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden, is well beyond the five-year limit doctors gave him in his fight against the cancer eating at his brain.

But he faces the future with an optimistic outlook and a focused mind that in many ways he thanks the garden for making possible.

Butler started his adult life as a musician and eventually found himself totally engaged in the Grunge scene as a member of the iconic band Nirvana's stage crew.

He later worked in a shower-door factory feeling less than fully useful to himself and his community.

Soon thereafter, he learned he had gliomas (cancer in his brain), and underwent very risky surgery which left him with what he describes as a zipper in the back of head.

The doctors told Butler that, at best, even a successful operation would only give him an extra five years of life.

As he lay in the hospital during recovery, he read "Second Nature: A Gardener's Education" by Michael Pollan that changed his life and gave him a philosophical imperative to move forward by making things grow.

He enrolled in the University of Washington's Architecture school to study landscaping.

After he graduated in 1999, what others saw as an environmental disaster, he saw as an opportunity to build a green legacy for himself and others.

Sea-Tac International Airport's third runway expansion meant the destruction of many private residences including Elda Behm's home and her "Paradise Garden," created over 35 years. (Editor's Note: Behm passed away on July 14.)

Through the vigorous efforts of Butler, former Burien City Councilman Stephen Lamphear and approximately 200 volunteers, Behm's garden was moved to its present location on 24th Avenue South near South 136th Street.

Butler saw the move as a chance to build on Behm's one- acre core garden and leave a legacy of his own for his community.

"In those first years, I would spend weeks without seeing another living soul," Butler recalls. "It would just be me and my dog toiling away waiting for the earth to bear fruits from my labor."

The garden's master plan was designed by landscape designer Butler in 1999 and revised in 2001 with the help of Michael Hankinson, a landscape architect for the national parks system.

Butler also played a key role in saving the Seike Japanese Garden. The garden was moved from the Des Moines Way Nursery when the property was bought as a buffer zone for the third runway.

Butler eagerly looks toward Sunday, Aug. 17 at 2 p.m. when Ciscoe Morris ("Gardening with Ciscoe") will be this year's celebrity guest and scooper at this year's garden ice cream social.

Butler is also seeking volunteers and cash donations for the garden. Information is available at www.highlinegarden.org.