For the past 11 years, Mark Ford has been building his personal Eden in western Delray Beach. Situated on secluded Half Mile Road, the 20 accessible acres of Paradise Palms contain 600 species of palm trees among more than 2,000 different specimens, organized in their own mini-biomes, from rainforest to desert.

Visitors wend their way through countless palms—exotic plants from New Guinea, Borneo, Thailand, Australia—and toward burbling fountains, a meditation garden framed by the creaking sway of bamboo, a koi pond and a hedge maze that’s so byzantine that visitors have reportedly lost themselves within it. There’s a children’s play area, an Asian tearoom, a yoga house, and a private residence with pool, hammocks and fire pit. Sculptures from Central and North American artists dot the property in strategic spots—metal and marble monuments from Ford’s extensive art collection.

Ford began acquiring the land in stages in 2013, and he considers it something like a perennial work in progress. In 2024 he finally opened Paradise Palms for public tours on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, in part to maintain its nonprofit status. But the gardens are still a hidden gem in Delray, which for Ford is by design, as he continues to navigate various regulatory and municipal protocols.

“There’s nothing I like better than to have people wandering in there, especially when they have kids,” Ford says. “But … I prefer to keep it like a secret. Every week we have more people coming over, so it’s going to grow naturally.”

The garden is one of myriad passions for Ford, who tends to have the resources and the drive to go for what he wants, no matter the audacity or timescale of the challenge: “‘Ready, fire, aim’ is my philosophy,” he says.

Born in Brooklyn to academic parents—his father was a Shakespearean scholar—Ford earned his fortune in the publishing industry, mostly in newsletters. He spent two years in the Peace Corps Chad (1976-78), teaching English and philosophy in Chad. As a real estate investor, his portfolio includes more than 100 projects and developments, including the signature Nicaraguan resort Rancho Santana.

Living in the Palm Beaches since 1980, when he took a job with a newsletter publisher in west Boca, Ford has written 24 books, including some best-sellers in the personal finance and development genres, and some not-so-best-sellers containing his short stories and poetry: “Total sales are almost breaking three figures,” he deadpans.

Ford has written and/or produced four movies, from the autobiographical coming-of-age comedy “Across the Rails” to the grindhouse horror of “The Uh-Oh Show,” the final feature from B-movie maestro and fellow-Floridian Herschell Gordon Lewis. He’s also a three-time martial arts champion who earned his black belt in 2015. A 2010 profile of Ford in TheStreet.com called him “the most important person you don’t know.”

Perhaps most importantly, Ford is a philanthropist, whose “fortune has mostly been distributed to the various nonprofits I’ve been involved in for the last 10 years,” he says. At 73, the Delray Beach resident is now more retired than he has ever been, after three or four unsuccessful attempts to call it quits dating back to age 39. “My partner’s son and my son are at the point where they’re running the business,” he says. “I didn’t want to be the old guy in the corner saying, ‘in our day!’”

But Ford keeps a busy current-events blog on MarkFord.net, and continues to amass what has become the largest collection of Central American art in the United States. And there’s Paradise Palms, perhaps the final largescale project of his life. “I’m just trying to get it done,” he says, with characteristic bluntness. “I’m in a phase of my life where I’m trying to tie up loose ends and not create a nightmare for my kids when I die.”

Paradise Palms’ long-term future is uncertain, but it’s currently paid for through an endowment, and it “may end up going to the county,” he says. For now, it’s the best Delray attraction you may not know about—and an occasional getaway for Ford himself, who hosts traditional family gatherings at its private cabin every Sunday. “And I usually stay over on Sunday night,” he says. “Once a week, I want to wake up in this beautiful place and walk around.”