When he was four years old, during the Second War of Schleswig in 1864, Jensen watched the Prussians invade his town, and burn his family's farm buildings.

This invasion, which annexed the land into Prussia, left a deep influence on how Jensen viewed the world of man.

Initially Jensen worked in Florida, and then at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, before moving to Chicago and taking a job as a laborer for the West Park Commission.

[8] He also designed the gardens for Edsel and Eleanor's summer estate 'Skylands' in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island in Maine (1922).

Jensen's landscape elements, with the diversity of tree, plant and animal life, combine aesthetics, history and nature.

[11][12] For Clara and Henry Ford Jensen employed his 'delayed view' approach in designing the arrival at the residence of their estate, Fair Lane, in Dearborn, Michigan.

Instead of proceeding straight to the house or even seeing it, the entrance drive leads visitors through the estate's dense woodland areas.

Bends in the drive, planted on the curves' inside arc with large trees give a feeling of a natural reason for the turn, and obscure any long view.

Suddenly, the visitor is propelled out of the forest and in the open space where the residence is presented fully in view in front of them.

[13] The boathouse, with stonework cliffs designed by Jensen, allowed Henry Ford to travel on the Rouge River in his electric boat.