The “I Am Williamson County” column features individuals in Williamson County who are known and unknown, as staples of our community, doing good, being seen and exuding Williamson County! Please complete the follow questions, to the fullest of your ability, for the Q&A portion of the article. Email your responses back by March 13th.
Full name (as you would like it to appear in print): Justin Stelter
Current job title: Founder and owner of JS Gardening, LLC/Director of Gardens and Grounds for The Battle of Franklin Trust
Company: JS Gardening, LLC
Years there: 27’ish, launched from the desk of my high school trigonometry class in May of 1995 as Meticulous Mowing.
How long have you lived in Williamson County? What is it about WC that makes it feel like home to you?
I moved from the bucolic agricultural town of Eagleville, TN to the steeped-in-history, forward moving city of Franklin in 1999. The goal was to be closer to my customers and surround myself with opportunities to build a better life, to be connected. The gracious and embracing people of Williamson County, many whom I now consider close friends or extended family, are what make this community feel like home to me.
2. What is your profession, and what led you to choose it?
I am a landscape gardener. Initially I took this path to pay my way through college and work with nature. Now I continue on this path because of the chance to harvest and the beauty in witnessing the development of all the seeds that were planted along the way.
3. Three words that best describe you.
I hope to be passionate, yearning, and faith-driven. My middle child Annabelle suggests that I am funny, strict, and hard-working while my wife Olivia describes me as driven, direct, and generous.
4. What do you like to do in your spare time (hobbies, traditions, etc.)?
Reading, helping others, creating adventures, and enhancing the beauty of our surroundings for my wife and children are my primary past times.
On the surface, annual social traditions include attending The Iroquois Steeplechase, and both The Swan Ball and Heritage Ball, but when we get to the heart of the matter, our family hopes to never miss gathering for country ham and ripe melons on Easter, feasting together at Thanksgiving, and me sipping a glass of well-aged whiskey while watching my wife and our children, Lily, Annabelle, and Scarlett joyfully decorate the Christmas tree.
Hopelessly filling out a March Madness bracket and counting down the days to the opening of The Nashville Antiques and Garden Show so we have a legitimate business excuse for a couple’s day-date are strong runner ups.
5. Where is your favorite place to go in WC and why?
For nearly two decades, my favorite place to visit in Williamson County was the garden at Carnton. The garden has revealed to me over the nearly two decades of caretaking and observation not only how much I have changed and developed--just like the garden itself--but also shed light on the fruitful rewards that proper amendments, nurturing, and cultivation can develop even as adversity and challenges were overcome.
As I have matured, I find more and more that my favorite place has transitioned to the high ground north of the garden, that final resting place filled with rows and rows of limestone markers of those that have gone on before us. The McGavock Family Cemetery, the adjoining enslaved cemetery, and the Confederate Cemetery might be the only place in the world where three cemeteries unite into one physical embodiment of perhaps the best example of how we should be united in life. To simply remember those that made the sacrifice, reflect on their struggles and imperfections, while basking under the light, is important to me now.
6. What keeps you motivated and inspired?
The goodness of others provides a continual spring-well of optimism and hope. Seeking that source motivates and inspires.
7. What organizations are you involved with and why?
Through work and personal interests, I am a member of almost twenty organizations. Here is a sampling:
American Boxwood Society (ABS)—as a former board member, one of our most important tasks was to support good cultural practices and disseminate up-to-date information regarding one of the most traditional plants of the south, the boxwood, and how to best manage the newest and potentially devastating disease, boxwood blight.
Franklin’s Charge—to help preserve tangible parcels of the history of our community so that the next generation can go to a place, walk the ground, and better understand surrender and sacrifice.
Franklin Tree Commission—to guide tree planting, overall health, and education in this community so that we can witness growth and sit in the shade when the time comes.
Southern Garden History Society (SGHS)—to study the history and development of gardens with those like-minded and use the lens of this perspective to effect change and protect the man-made beauty created for us.
Tennessee Nursery and Landscape Association (TNLA) of the oldest continuously operating organizations in the state, our mission was to “share ideas, foster research and further educate our members in order to benefit owners, employees and consumers.”
*To brag just a little, I’m also a self-appointed card-carrying member of the Ain’t Life Great Club and an official Tennessee Squire!
8. What is the one thing you do not go a day without? Smiling and looking up
9. Finish this statement. I AM Williamson County because… the stars aligned.