Bird Haven Farm - by Janet Mavec (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A four-season photographic exploration of one of America's great contemporary private gardens. A fixture on The Garden Conservancy's Open Days tours, the historic 100-acre farm has been shepherded into the modern era and given a modern sensibility by the vision of its owner, Janet Mavec, also the book's author.

Preserving and enhancing a property rich in narrative and natural beauty has been a twenty-year obsession for this property's owner. Mavec has called upon a host of well-known garden luminaries to help preserve what began as a farm with a solitary stone house originally owned by the publisher of the Nancy Drew mysteries while making it functional, productive, and beautiful for the twenty-first century. Today, a series of individual gardens rest within a natural hollow surrounded by native woodland, including a broad gathering space defined by whimsical cloud-pruned boxwood hedges, groves of lilacs, and dogwoods and hellebores that entice visitors into early-season walks with delicate color each spring, a stone-walled vegetable and flower garden whose geometry is inspired by medieval monasteries, winding perennial-lined paths, orchards that produce over five hundred pounds of apples each fall, a natural pond brimming with aquatic plants, and an elliptical hillside meadow farmed for hay. All lead intuitively back to the "town square," an open area tucked among the dwelling spaces featuring a broad ground-level fountain that clearly identifies it as the true heart of the farm.

With plenty of inspiration and encouragement on what it means to steward land in an ecologically appropriate way while still fully enjoying its bounty, the volume also includes seasonal menus featuring ingredients grown on the farm or sourced locally. All is artistically documented by photographer Ngoc Minh Ngo in full-color photographs that draw the reader through every area of the garden and celebrate its scenic vistas as well as its loveliest small details.

Review Quotes

"Like all living things, the garden is constantly evolving--growing, shifting, surprising. That sense of discovery, the daily tending, the intimate care poured into each plant, is what sustains Mavec in her work on Bird Haven. Even if you cannot hear the birdsong, with her new book you can read about it--and imagine why the birds sing." -ELLEDECOR.COM

"...a record of how the 100-acre New Jersey estate was cultivated into a variety of spaces--a pond dyed a nontoxic black to better reflect the sky, and orchard that produces hundreds of pounds of apples a year, a grove filled with early blooms like hellebore and dogwood." -- VOGUE

"With photographs by Ngoc Minh Ngo, the volume not only traces the project's trajectory but also offers a four-season peek into Bird Haven Farm's fully rehabilitated landscape, now considered one of America's finest private gardens. Bird Haven Farm isn't just a pretty picture book, though. Mavec is an accomplished storyteller. She touches on the farm's history, devoting a section to the creator of the Nancy Drew series, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams (aka Carolyn Keene), who owned the farm until her death in 1982. She also notes some of her signature horticultural decisions, like planting 200 native pink rhododendrons along a privacy berm to get a desired wave of color, and placing 800 boxwoods, pruned into chubby rounds, near the house and along paths to create a strong green visual belt on the property. Mavec, a consummate entertainer, also includes seasonal menus and recipes for outdoor meals and soirees--a reminder to enjoy the garden, not just work in it..." -- COTTAGES & GARDENS

"...on reading Janet's entertaining and splendidly photographed book, Bird Haven Farm: The Story of an Original American Garden, it is clear that [Mavec] approaches the farm's bounty and generosity in a similar way to Harriet, sharing it with friends and family." -- GARDENISTA.COM

About the Author

Janet Mavec's gardening life began as a child in Ohio and flourished when she moved to Bird Haven Farm in 1996. Throughout her long jewelry career, nature has served as a constant -- including as a source of inspiration for her eponymous line, which features designs based exclusively on natural forms, from apples to strawberries to acorns to peapods to doves. She has served on the board of Wave Hill and with its Friends of Horticulture at Wave Hill for twenty-two years, including as chair. Bird Haven Farm has participated in The Garden Conservancy Open Days program for over twenty years. Ngoc Minh Ngo is a celebrated photographer and the author of Bringing Nature Home, In Bloom, and Eden Revisited. Ngoc's images have been published in the World of Interiors, T Magazine, Architectural Digest, Cabana, and House & Garden UK.