When Janet Mavec’s husband bought Bird Haven Farm in Western New Jersey in the 1980s, it had been the long-cherished retreat of publishing maven Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, whose most famous character was Nancy Drew. Nancy had been invented by Harriet’s father, who also came up with the Hardy Boys and earlier characters with evocative names like Dashaway Dan. His untimely death meant that his daughters inherited Miss Drew before their father was able to enjoy her success, and Harriet played the central role in turning Nancy into a publishing phenomenon. Janet, who has lived at Bird Haven Farm for 30 years, maintains that the original old stone house is haunted by Harriet.
It’s okay, she’s quite happy: on reading Janet’s new entertaining and splendidly photographed book, Bird Haven Farm: The Story of an Original American Garden, it is clear that she approaches the farm’s bounty and generosity in a similar way to Harriet, sharing it with friends and family. For Harriet, it was a retreat that was also a venue for writer’s parties (her domestic focus was on the vegetable and cut flower garden). But the property’s collection of buildings, set within 100 acres, was not terribly functional, and after some sleuthing into its past, Janet decided that the renowned landscape architect Fernando Caruncho was just the person to make sense of the landscape’s clues.
Photography by Ngoc Minh Ngo, except where noted.
Above: Janet’s intensely tended vegetable garden, where she also entertains. “I spend most of my time planning which vegetables, fruits, and herbs to grow, and then dreaming up menus and parties around them.”
When Caruncho first visited Bird Haven Farm in 2001, the property’s layout “evoked a sense of unease and constraint, as if the trees of the neighboring forest were an encroaching army, encircling the property,” he recalls. He cut through trails to invite in shafts of light and raised tree canopies at the forest edge to highlight their forms.
Above: A circular fountain with a single jet in a calm space, designed by Fernando Caruncho. Photograph by Marion Brenner.
“Fernando is celebrated for his gracefully minimalist gardens, where light, water, and geometry are the key components,” writes Janet. He pointed out that the jumble of buildings was like a medieval village, with its old house, new house, and two red barns. Striving to unify these things, he installed a still, reflecting pond in the middle. It is now one of Janet’s favorite places to entertain.
Above: And now for something completely different. The extant pond (and willow) offers a great contrast to the highly controlled “medieval village” at the property’s center.
Above: Trees are celebrated—as single trees in the garden, in the orchard, and in the woods.
“Caruncho studied how shadows fall at certain times of day, across the property, and factored them into his design,” writes Janet. Referring to the image above (left), she continues: “We thinned this area of vegetation to allow light to filter through the trees.”
When fruit, vegetables and flowers ripen and bloom, Janet invites people over. Apple cider harvest parties are an annual fixture at the farm. If children are on the guest list they are free to climb and pick, but otherwise the harvesting is done ahead of time, so as to make best use of the extra hands. “Only invite guests willing to work!” advises Janet, who points them to an old-fashioned hand press. Everyone takes some home.
Above: A big fan of boxwood, Janet collected many different varieties for years, before Caruncho was able to gather them together in his signature style.
The “boxwood oval” is one of seven places in the garden that beckon for entertaining. “Have I created too many options? Maybe so, but these are all nice destinations,” writes Janet. “People often comment that you never know where you are going to eat when you come to Bird Haven Farm. It’s literally a moveable feast, by design.”
Above: “The most important lesson the farm has taught me is that it is ours to share,” writes Janet. “It takes time to pick and wash and prepare and arrange and plate and serve and clean up, sure, but honestly, time spent reaping the fruits of your own labor is the most well-spent time, isn’t it?” Photograph by Marion Brenner.
Above, at left: An illustration from the original 1930 edition of The Bungalow Mystery (belonging to me!), the third Nancy Drew story, and a gripping read from the first sentence (“Don’t you think we should turn back, Helen? It’s getting dreadfully dark out here”). At right, a wigwam-type hut that Janet and Wayne built for grandchildren. They add branches brought down by the wind.
Above: Mystery solved. “Our overarching goal was to let the land speak for itself, rather than to impose too much of ourselves upon it.”
Above: Bird Haven Farm: The Story of an Original American Garden by Janet Mavec was published this week by Rizzoli.
See our first story on Bird Haven Farm here.
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