Bird Haven Farm

Bird Haven Farm: The Story of an Original American Garden offers a four-season portrait of a singular private landscape opened regularly for Garden Conservancy tours. Author Janet Mavec guides readers through meadows, orchards, woodland edges, and intimate enclosures shaped over two decades on a historic property once owned by the publisher behind the Nancy Drew mysteries. Photographs by Ngoc Minh Ngo dwell on structure and mood—stone walls catching morning light, pollinator clouds over herb borders, birds threading hedgerows. Essays consider stewardship: restoring habitats, balancing productivity with beauty, and designing for wildlife as much as human delight. Plant lists and design diagrams reveal how paths, hedges, and water features choreograph movement and views. The result is both personal memoir and practical inspiration, demonstrating how layered planting, heritage preservation, and ecological empathy can turn acreage into a living narrative. For gardeners, naturalists, and lovers of place, the book models a generous vision of what a modern American farm garden can be—productive, biodiverse, and deeply poetic across the year.