By Rebekah LaSala
Special to the Highline Times

Stephen Lamphear is much more than a lazy gardener, referring to his “Lazy Gardener” column from 1999 to 2007 that he had with the Highline Times. Lamphear was a former Burien City Council member from 1998 to 2005. Lamphear is a spirited combination of a sage zen master truly connected to his garden and a man who can turn a black gardening thumb green. Lamphear’s zen-like wisdom and passionate advice can take the fear factor out of gardening for many.

Lamphear’s garden will be featured in the upcoming Highline Garden Tour on June 8th, 2013 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Tour features private gardens in Burien, Normandy Park, and SeaTac designed to inspire new ideas and the latest techniques. Ed Baldwin, General Manager for the Highline SeaTac Botanical Gardens Center states that at the Center (at 13735 24th Ave S, SeaTac), “We have a lot of irises and summer flowers in prolific bloom this year.”

Lamphear is the co-founder of what was then called the Burien Garden Tour in 1996. He passed on the Garden Tour to the Highline Historical Society in 2003. Lamphear created the Highline Botanical Garden Foundation in 1997 to save Elda Behm’s reknowned garden. Through that, the Foundation became the Highline SeaTac Botanical Gardens. The main garden officially opened in 2002. Lamphear also created the Burien Senior Center Plaza Garden in 2003.

His work has been in numerous publications. He has been featured prominently in “Garden Retreats: Creating an Outdoor Sanctuary” by Barbara Blossom in 2000. Also, Lamphear won a trip for first place garden to London through the 1997 Pacific Gardens Contest, and was published in the 2000 Better Homes & Gardens specialty publication, “Garden, Deck & Landscaping.”

Lamphear’s gardens feel like a welcome home to an old friend’s house that you love dearly, or a place that you remember in your mind’s eye of what serenity might look like. On each turn, you will see friendly marks of the Buddha at every turn like the smiling cat Buddha, outdoor “rooms”, a Zen style pond and water garden, and other surprises. Take one walk through Lamphear’s backyard, and these gentle plants will pull you in. The Asian influence include Chinese and Japanese plants, but nothing is off limits for Lamphear. He welcomes all kinds of native plants and plants from other places. He says that the “lazy garden” term really comes from the intricate understanding that all plants want to grow. However, he says, they just need loving prodding to develop in their own unique way.

Rather than spend the same big amount of money the same kinds of plants every year, Lamphear says he has often divided his plants in half, used seeds and other ways to intricately build of the plants that were already there. The result is this “lazy” and truly brilliant garden. He says, “My preference is plants. I want them to provide texture, shape and form.” However, Lamphear loves flowers too, but wants them to be interwoven carefully in the soothing interplay of color that is the current theme in his garden, with varying shades of golden yellow. He also features Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan plants like the Chinese Fleece Flower, Japanese Painted Fern and Tibetan Clematis.

Lamphear’s garden includes: rufous hummingbirds, evening and black-headed grosbeaks, song sparrows, wrens, goldfinches, golden-mantled squirrel, merlins and other raptors, red fox, opossums, salamanders and too many raccoons.

Lamphear has deep roots to his gardening and says, “The first gardening I did was when I was about 10. I became a test gardener for a rose company and got FREE roses to track for performance. My first actual garden was in 1981 when I bought my first house in Ballard. It wasn't much, but I had real dirt.”

Lamphear says, “It wasn't until I bought this house in 1992 that I got truly bitten by the horticulture bug. I had an apron that read: 'You can lead a Hor-ti-culture but you can't make her think'. It was a scream. So, this place is the genesis of my obsession!”

Regarding gardening work ethics, he says, “Instead of watching ESPN, I am in the garden, sometimes several hours a day. It can feel like hours but it is just an hour. ” He explains that he just becomes one with what he is doing. It is a “zen” thing for him. Lamphear says, “Gardeners are the most optimistic people on the planet. Some magnolias take 20 years to bloom from seed. Who else would wait 20 years for something like that?”

Among some of Lamphear’s richly diverse representation can just be told by their names: “Sky’s of Italy”, “Compton’s Variety”, “Painter’s Palette”, “Chilean Feather Bamboos”, “Jupiter’s Beard”, “Variegatas” and what may be some people’s favorite this summer: The Viagra Lily (Dracunculus Vulgaris). Humor is part of Lamphear’s gardening.

Lamphear knows his plants so intimately that he says he understands when they are getting along or “fighting” and says they are truly his children. He states proudly that he knows every plant’s history and name within his garden.

Lamphear feels gardening is for everyone and states, “Figure out how to focus it. Put the pots together. It’s okay to buy one plant if that’s all you can afford. A limited budget just means more planning.”

Lamphear feels gardening can be very personal and respects different gardening styles. He says, “You can learn a lot from garden tours: including what NOT to do.”

The tickets for the Highline Garden Tour are now on sale and are $15 in advance, with group rates of $12 per person if bought in groups of four or more. They are $18 on the day of the tour, and can be purchased at Wild Birds Unlimited, 15858 1st Avenue S, #106; Burien Bark, 13258 1st Avenue S; and Sterling Bank, 224 SW 152nd – all in Burien. The tickets are also available at 206-241-5786. Some of this year’s sponsors are: Susan Plecko/John L. Scott Real Estate, Discover Burien, Wild Birds Unlimited, The Bean, Rodda and Sons Landscaping, Burien Bark, Grand Central Bakery, and Rain City Sewer and Plumbing and are offering coupons and specials.