By Thomas A. Parmalee
By any measure, Jake Johnson has seen the cemetery business from every angle.
Today, Johnson serves as president and CEO of Johnson Consulting Group, one of the profession’s most influential advisory firms. He owns funeral homes, consults on some of the profession’s largest transactions, and has advised cemetery operators across North America.
But long before he was analyzing EBITDA, sales velocity and inventory projections, he was moving irrigation heads, leveling markers, and working with cemetery crews in California and Nevada.
Like many young employees who got their start at a cemetery, Johnson approached the work as a series of tasks.
“I’d finish one project and then ask, ‘What’s next?’ It was very task-driven,” he said. “Then I had an early realization that I wasn’t being paid to complete a list. I was being paid because there would always be work to do. The inbox is always full.”
That lesson would prove foundational.
Learning the Cemetery Business from the Ground Up
Johnson’s first cemetery experience came at Valley Oaks Mortuary and Cemetery in Westlake Village, California, now part of Service Corporation International and known as Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks-Griffin Memorial Park, Mortuary & Crematory.
There, he was introduced to the realities of cemetery operations that many people never see.
“There was always something that needed attention,” he said. “Leveling markers. Fixing vases that had risen out of the ground. Cleaning sidewalks. Managing irrigation. There was never a shortage of work.”
What struck him most, however, was the contrast between funeral home operations and cemetery operations.
“The cemetery crews were doing incredibly difficult work,” Johnson said. “They’re outside in the heat. They’re digging graves. They’re handling irrigation. They’re solving problems customers never even know exist.”
He remembers watching hardworking grounds personnel perform physically demanding jobs that were essential to the cemetery’s appearance and function.
“It taught me a lot about respect,” he said. “Later in my career, when I was managing people, I always wanted the grounds teams to know I was willing to pitch in. That went a long way.”
Why Irrigation Becomes a Cemetery’s Biggest Headache
When Johnson later joined Palm Mortuary and Cemetery in Las Vegas, he encountered one of the industry’s most complex irrigation environments.
“The problem they were having was irrigation,” he said. “In desert cemeteries, that’s often the biggest challenge.”
The reason is simple but unavoidable: Cemeteries are constantly being disturbed.
“You bury everything underground because you want the cemetery to look like a park,” Johnson explained. “Then you keep digging to put more people in the ground.”
Every excavation creates risk.
“Irrigation lines are buried. Utilities are buried,” he said. “You’re constantly working around those systems while also trying to maintain beautiful grounds.”
Palm Mortuary’s cemetery was exceptionally busy, at that time handling approximately 1,200 interments annually on roughly 50 acres. The high volume meant continual construction activity, grave openings, equipment movement and irrigation repairs.
“You have to be mindful of where your lines are,” Johnson said. “You have to think about equipment weight. You have to think about what happens when a line gets cut. There was a lot to it.”
The complexity increased because Palm operated a sophisticated water reclamation system.
The cemetery captured runoff water, returned it to a holding pond, and reused it for irrigation. While environmentally responsible, the system required careful balancing.
“You had to understand how much water you were drawing from the pond versus how much was being returned,” Johnson said. “You couldn’t drain the pond. You couldn’t overwater. You couldn’t have sprinklers running during services. Everything had to work together.”
Designing Irrigation with Future Burials in Mind
One of the most important lessons Johnson learned involved planning.
Many irrigation problems begin long before the first sprinkler head is installed.
“When you’re developing a new garden, you have to think years ahead,” he said.
The challenge is unique to cemeteries. Irrigation systems, sidewalks, trees, markers and burial spaces must coexist for decades.
“You have to ask yourself where the graves are going to be,” Johnson explained. “I’ve seen cemeteries where irrigation lines were installed right down the middle of future burial spaces.”
The result is predictable.
“You know you’re going to break those lines eventually,” he said.
Johnson believes successful cemetery development requires close coordination between sales, construction and maintenance teams …essentially a master plan.
“If those groups aren’t aligned, maintenance can become a nightmare,” he said.
The Irrigation Audit That Changed Everything
One of Johnson’s earliest major projects at Palm involved a comprehensive irrigation overhaul.
The cemetery’s irrigation clocks and controls had become unreliable. Some zones worked. Others didn’t. Water distribution was inconsistent.
Rather than replacing equipment blindly, Johnson and his team conducted a methodical evaluation of the entire system.
“We literally went valve by valve,” he said.
The team manually activated irrigation zones, counted sprinkler heads, documented pressure requirements and mapped coverage areas.
“We took a cemetery map and highlighted every area that each valve controlled,” Johnson said. “Then we compared that against what the irrigation clock thought it was controlling.”
The process uncovered numerous problems, including failed wiring, malfunctioning valves and areas receiving improper coverage.
“If a valve wasn’t responding, we’d stop and repair it before moving on,” he said.
The result was a complete operating blueprint for the irrigation system.
“We created procedures for shutting zones off during services, repairing breaks and managing the entire system,” Johnson said. “Everything was documented.”
The Cost of Too Much Water
For many cemetery operators, irrigation problems are often associated with dry grass and brown spots.
Johnson argues that overwatering can be even more damaging.
“We always had to remember why irrigation exists in the first place,” he said. “It’s there to make the grass healthy and beautiful.”
Applying too much water creates a cascade of problems.
Customers encounter muddy conditions and standing water. Grass develops shallow root systems. Mold and fungus can emerge. Settlement issues may become more pronounced. Water costs increase dramatically.
“If you’re overwatering, you’re creating problems all over the property,” Johnson said.
Las Vegas provided additional motivation for conservation. Water restrictions often imposed penalties for watering during certain daytime hours.
“You had to figure out the right amount of soak time,” Johnson explained. “Sometimes that meant multiple cycles. Sometimes it meant changing schedules entirely.”
The goal was not simply green grass.
“The goal is hardy grass with deep roots that can withstand traffic, weather, and cemetery operations,” Johnson said.
Why Customer Service Depends on Maintenance
Johnson believes one of the most overlooked aspects of cemetery management is communication between the front office and grounds staff.
His solution was a formal ticketing system.
“Customers come in and say a vase is missing, a marker needs cleaning, or a section doesn’t look right,” he said. “Those requests can’t just disappear.”
The system created accountability.
Maintenance teams received assignments, completed the work, documented the results and recorded the outcome.
“Take a picture. Document it. Create a record,” Johnson said.
Without that process, issues can resurface later with no way to verify what was done.
“To me, Cemetery Management 101 depends on having a good ticketing system,” Johnson said.
Technology Is Improving Irrigation Management
Today’s cemetery operators have access to irrigation technology that simply wasn’t available when Johnson was rebuilding systems at Palm.
Weather-based controllers can automatically adjust watering schedules. Remote monitoring systems can identify leaks. On-site weather stations can provide property-specific data.
“If you can afford it, having your own weather station on the property is valuable,” Johnson said.
He cautions operators against relying solely on regional weather reports.
“What the internet says may not actually be what’s happening at your cemetery,” he warned.
Many larger cemeteries now utilize advanced irrigation platforms from manufacturers such as Hunter Industries and Rain Bird that automatically respond to environmental conditions.
Still, Johnson emphasizes that technology is only as good as the people managing it.
“You still need to understand what’s happening on the property,” he said.
Never Forget Why the Work Matters
Throughout his career, Johnson has remained passionate about cemetery operations because of their tangible and lasting impact.
“In a funeral home, you may have a family struggling with grief, and your interaction lasts a few days,” he said. “At a cemetery, you’re caring for that family forever.”
That responsibility extends beyond interments and memorialization.
Every irrigation repair, every leveled marker, every healthy lawn, and every maintained vase contributes to the experience families have when they visit.
For Johnson, that perspective traces directly back to his days as a teenager and young man working grounds maintenance.
“There was always something to do,” he said.
Years later, after advising hundreds of cemetery operators and helping facilitate major transactions across the profession in his role as the CEO of Johnson Consulting Group, he still believes the lesson holds true.
The work is never finished. The details always matter. And often, the difference between an average cemetery and an exceptional one starts beneath the grass, where few visitors ever look.
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