Witnessing Perfection as an Estate Gardener I was only twenty 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 …
Estate Gardens – Cost No Object! In last week’s column I wrote about my short career as an estate gardener at Jasna Polana, the 200-acre Johnson estate near Princeton, New Jersey. I worked there less than a year, but I had experiences I will remember for a lifetime. Jasna Polana was modeled after a traditional …
Estate Gardener – A Dream Job? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be an estate gardener? Perhaps you’ve visited the Biltmore Estate, Longwood Gardens or other private estates that are now open to the public. These places have “cost no object” buildings and landscaping, maintained by professional groundskeepers along with a …
Touring Destination Gardens Marjorie and I spent the first two weeks of September on a road trip, touring some of our favorite gardens and historic sites. It was a vacation of sorts, but also a sentimental journey, and a voyage of discovery that we intend to share with our readers in the coming months. Americans …