The Village Nurseries to celebrate 150 years

The East Windsor business has been serving the area’s agricultural needs for generations.

By: Sarah Winkelman
   EAST WINDSOR — A century and a half ago, area residents and farmers went to The Village Nurseries to purchase fruit trees and shrubs. Even though the nursery’s name and product line has changed over the years, people still go there to buy trees, plants and shrubs for their homes. Throughout the month of June, The Village Nurseries will be celebrating its 150th anniversary with a variety of activities and sales.
   "We wanted to mark the time while getting our customers and the community involved," said Mike Mendenko, 49, who owns The Village Nurseries with Joseph H. Black Locke, 77, the great-grandson of one of the nursery’s original owners, Joseph H. Black.
   In 1853, Charles Black planted shade trees and evergreens on 20 acres of land on York Road, just outside of Hightstown. In 1875, he purchased a larger farm and nursery from Isaac Pullen, and entered a partnership with his brother, Joseph H. Black.
   In 1888, Walter C. Black bought his uncle Charles’s share of the nursery and increased production to 200,000 peach trees per year and an equal number of small fruit trees. In the early 1900s, the nursery sold 22 varieties of strawberries, along with raspberries, currants, gooseberries, grapes and peaches. Also, they sold a small variety of ornamental trees, including the American chestnut.
   During World War I, Walter C. Black became the sole proprietor of the nursery. His grandson, Joseph H. Black Locke, showed an interest in the business. Mr. Locke started working at the nursery on weekends and during the summer when he was a young child.
   After returning from World War II, Mr. Locke finished college and joined the business in 1950, becoming his grandfather’s partner in 1951. He continues to run the business with Mr. Mendenko.
   The Walter C. Black School was named for Mr. Locke’s grandfather, who also donated a large portion of his land to the Peddie School, his alma mater, for its golf course. Mr. Black and his family have been heavily involved in community service in the past century. Mr. Black was a member of the Peddie School board for 38 years and was on the East Windsor-Hightstown Board of Education for 54 years. He was also the East Windsor tax collector for a number of years.
   "The family has always been active in the community while maintaining the nursery," Mr. Mendenko said.
   He added that residents would come to the nursery office to pay their taxes and socialize with the Black family. The bench, woodwork cabinets, some of the furniture and the main desk are all original to the building.
   "Some people say coming in here is like stepping back in time," Mr. Mendenko said, gesturing around the main room of the nursery’s office. "You can still see the holes in the floorboards where the desk used to sit."
   Today, Mr. Mendenko and Mr. Locke sell fertilizer, weed killer, bird feeders and food along with the flowers, plants and trees that were common at the turn of the century. Flats of impatiens, sweet marjoram, herbs, Italian oregano, Mexican heather and violets crowd the front lawn of the nursery, enticing passers-by to stop and check out what the nursery has to offer.
   In the late 1800s, the nursery stocked mainly fruit trees and berry plants. Farmers could either go to the nursery to buy the plants or they could order them from the nursery’s catalogs. The Black family used the Pemberton and Hightstown railroad line to ship plants and trees to farmers across the country.
   The most popular varieties were the Big Joe strawberry and the Mercer Cherry, whose claim to fame was its freedom from rot and worms and its table and canning quality. Both varieties were created by the Black family around the turn of the century.
   When the price of land rose, Mr. Mendenko said the demand for fruit trees declined because farmers had less room for orchards. In the 1940s, the nursery switched to ornamental trees and shrubs in response to the post-World War II boom in home ownership. The new focus was on flowering cherry bushes, Japanese maples, oak trees and dogwood trees — anything people might want to plant in their yards.
   "Being around for so long means that we are doing work for the third and fourth generations," said Mr. Mendenko. "It’s nice to see some of the trees we planted 30 years ago thriving today."
   Mr. Locke said he taught an adult education class in horticulture at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School for 30 years because he "wanted to keep up with the latest advances in horticulture."
   At its largest, the nursery owned approximately 1,600 acres between Cedarville Road and the border of Hightstown. Today, only 6.5 acres remain. Most of the plantings are grown in containers instead of out in the field, which allows for availability at any time of year. In catalogs from the early 1900s, all the plants were sold with bare roots, not packed in dirt or pots. This limited availability from mid-March to mid-May.
   Mr. Mendenko said he tries to keep the nursery stocked with a broad range of products, not just average plants.
   To keep busy in the winter, the Blacks decided to sell Christmas trees. They imported Norway spruce trees from Europe to sell to local residents. The nursery no longer sells Christmas trees because there isn’t enough room to grow them, but Mr. Locke said the nursery was one of the first in the United States to sell Christmas trees. He remembers going door to door distributing fliers for the trees and then going back to deliver them with his father.
   The nursery’s owners hope the business will continue for many years to come. Mr. Mendenko’s son, Tim, is interested in horticulture, which he is studying at Cornell University. He has worked at the nursery during his summer vacations for the last five years, but Mr. Mendenko said it is up to his son whether he would like to run the business one day. Mr. Locke’s children chose to pursue other careers.
   Over the years, local neighborhood kids have become part of the nursery family. Some have worked at the nursery throughout high school and then come back years later with their families to visit the nursery.
   "It is wonderful to be able to give kids their first job," Mr. Mendenko said. "It’s a great place to learn. It’s good work, healthy work. I tried other stuff, inside work, but I just couldn’t do it. I love being outside. It’s not a job, it’s a way of life."
   The nursery employs four people full-time and up to nine people during the busy summer months.
   Mr. Mendenko wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to check on job sites and tend to the plants. Rain or shine, seven days a week, he works at the nursery.
   "It’s just what you do," he said. "I look at the plants like they are my kids. They can’t really take care of themselves, so it’s my responsibility to take care of them, to feed them and help them grow."