The imposing entrance gates at Jasna Polana in Princeton, New Jersey.
Courtesy | GoodSeed Farm
I was only 20 years old when I started work on the grounds crew at Jasna Polana, the J. Seward Johnson estate in Princeton, New Jersey. My previous employer recommended me for the position; the assistant to Jasna Polana’s estate manager was an old school chum of his.
Having grown up in a family business specializing in commercial/industrial landscape maintenance, I brought some experience to my new job. My dad’s company was very automated, with state-of-the art equipment, but I spent many an hour picking up trash off lawns, weeding, and spreading mulch, during my teenage years.
My hair was long in those days, which presented a challenge to my upward mobility despite my years of experience. I found myself at the bottom rung in a grounds crew composed mostly of Mexicans who didn’t speak English. After some time I proved myself, so I was given certain areas of responsibility and allowed to work independently.
The bocce ball court and the “hanging gardens” around it were my main focus. Maintaining the bentgrass lawn took me all morning on most days. Many afternoons were spent weeding the perennial gardens. There was a walled courtyard with hundreds of miniature roses; my job was to deadhead and trim them so that nary a spent bloom spoiled the effect. At the opposite end of the huge house was a formal garden with a series of reflecting pools, surrounded by giant 200-year-old boxwoods. Connecting them was a bluestone walk, laid with exactly one inch gap between the pavers. The day I met Mr. Johnson, I was on my knees trimming the strips of grass in the cracks when he walked by.
The estate had an existing mansion; a gracious three-story Federal-style stone residence that served as a guest house. I liked it better than the ostentatious new home the Johnson’s were building. Once, I had occasion to visit the basement. I was very impressed with the spotless, glossy, battleship-gray floors and walls. The network of pipes and ducts overhead was all color-coded in shiny primary colors; blue for cold water, red for hot and so on.
I particularly liked the network of trails through the woodlands on the estate. Great care had been taken to make them smooth and level, with broad railroad-tie steps in steep places. The trails were swept clean daily, and groomed with a layer of peat moss. This made them as soft as carpeting, allowing the Johnsons to walk silently through the woods without alerting the wildlife.
The perimeter walls and driveway columns were also made of stone. They were dressed up with detailed wrought iron fencing, finials and ornamentation, examples of old-world craftsmanship by a team of Polish ironworkers. These skilled craftsmen patiently formed the thick iron bars into delicate thistles, flowers and birds. The massive wrought-iron gates, solid and heavy, were a far cry from the mass-produced stamped aluminum of today.
Another memorable feature was the graceful stone arched bridge under the winding entrance drive, where it crossed a small brook. The stones matched that of the new house and the stone walls that surrounded the estate, all individually “dressed” with great care by the team of Polish stonemasons. The stonework extended deep into the ground; I was told that even the stones that were buried were carefully dressed, all the way to the very bottom. This extravagance left a lasting impression on me.
Lacking the immense wealth of the founder of Johnson & Johnson, I could only fantasize about living in such a place. Still, everything I saw while working at Jasna Polana continues to fuel my own vision; a “working man’s Jasna Polana” in the Appalachian foothills of Adams County, Ohio. I went on to a career designing and building landscapes, my own and my clients. Gold-plated, over-the-top materials aren’t in my paintbox. “Inexpensive materials, elegantly applied” is my design mantra today.
Steve Boehme is a landscape designer/installer specializing in landscape “makeovers.” “Let’s Grow” is published weekly; column archives are online at www.goodseedfarm.com. For more information, call GoodSeed Farm Landscapes at (937) 587-7021.
