Two caretakers maintain a public garden on Canal Pointe Boulevard
By: Emily Craighead
WEST WINDSOR A block from Route 1’s traffic jams and strip malls lies a little piece of paradise.
It’s a garden that isn’t in anyone’s front yard or anyone’s backyard it belongs to everyone.
The garden at Emmons Drive and Canal Pointe Boulevard adds a splash of color to the landscape. It offers a place for local residents walking to the Windsor Green Shopping Center to stop and rest beside a bed of daffodils and tulips, or sit and read a book in the shade of the weeping cherry tree.
Its caretakers, Ronald LeMahieu and Gloria Cartusciello, live a couple of blocks away, on Sequoia Court and Acadia Court, respectively.
Years ago, Judy Lello, who lived in the Princeton Seminary housing across the street from the garden, received permission from the property manager and support from the seminary groundskeepers to turn a small grass field into a garden. She landscaped the garden using stones excavated from a nearby construction site, planting trees and flower beds and adding a bench.
"She really put the bones in," Mr. LeMahieu says.
Ms. Lello moved to Pennsylvania in 1996, and weeds overtook the garden.
"When she left it fell into disrepair," Mr. LeMahieu says.
Mr. LeMahieu moved into a Colonnade Pointe condominium 2003, trading in a lush garden with perennials, vegetables and a Japanese garden he nurtured for years at his former North Caldwell residence for a small terrace.
A certified master gardener meaning he has completed coursework in gardening, taken an exam, and volunteered 100 hours in public gardens Mr. LeMahieu says he couldn’t imagine life without gardening.
Each week, he volunteers in the orchid house at the Doris Duke farm in Hillsborough, and he is responsible for creating an authentic 18th-century herb garden at the historic Brearley House in Lawrence Township.
One of his new neighbors, Ms. Cartusciello, found out about his love of gardening and suggested he take over Ms. Lello’s work at the Emmons Drive garden.
Over the past few years, with the renewed support of Princeton Theological Seminary Facilities Director German Martinez and Meridian Property Services, Mr. LeMahieu has restored the garden to its former beauty and added some personal touches.
This week, the daffodils are in full bloom and the tulips are starting to blossom. Soon the irises will bloom and all the trees will be green again.
"Over the next couple of weeks it’s going to be even more spectacular," Mr. LeMahieu says.
Carved into a stone adorning one of the flower beds is a saying that describes the effect of the garden on the many people who pass by each day, "One who plants a garden plants happiness," it says.
"The exposure that this garden has to all these people coming through is incredible," Mr. LeMahieu says.
Some drivers cruising along Canal Pointe Boulevard miss the garden’s beauty as they toss an empty cup or plastic bag out the window litter the garden’s caretakers will have to collect later.
But many more slow down and roll down their windows or pull into the nearby parking lot to take in the scents and colors, and they thank Mr. LeMahieu and Ms. Cartusciello for their work.
"It’s very uplifting," Ms. Cartusciello says. "It does so much for the morale.

