Jewelry designer Janet Mavec never intended to restore a landmark garden in New Jersey. As she explains in her new book Bird Haven Farm: The Story of an Original American Garden (which is being published by Rizzoli on September 2), she became the co-steward of the 100-acre Pottersville garden when she married Wayne Nordberg, a finance executive who already owned it, in 1996.
The garden was originally created and named in 1816 by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, best known as the publisher behind the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series. (She wrote many of the books herself, using the pseudonyms Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon.) In Adams’ day, the property featured 300 chickens, expansive vegetable and flower gardens, and a greenhouse.
Ngoc Minh Ngo
Mavec has long held an affinity for both beauty and nature. In the 1980s, she opened an antique jewelry store on Madison Avenue specializing in 19th century gems shaped like flowers, birds, and fruits. She later launched her own line, Janet Mavec Jewelry, creating pieces inspired by the natural world. After five years at Bird Haven Farm, she was ready to restore and expand the garden—with Nordberg’s support. ELLE Decor featured an earlier version of the garden in 2011. Since then, Mavec has added a boxwood garden, a children’s area, and added a new long border for “the birds and the bees.”
In her book—featuring photography by Ngoc Minh Ngo and recipes by Gail Monaghan—Mavec explores the personal and spiritual rewards of cultivating Bird Haven. After interviewing several landscape architects without success, she discovered Mirrors of Paradise (2000) by Spanish landscape architect Fernando Caruncho. The Madrid-based minimalist, who studied philosophy before becoming a designer, extols gardens that blend classical structure with contemporary simplicity.
Marion Brenner
Caruncho’s minimalist water fountain was based on Medieval village centers.
In 2003, Mavec reached out and Caruncho accepted—one of his first U.S. projects. “It was really about editing the garden as opposed to adding to it,” Mavec says. “And Fernando is such a good editor.”
Caruncho envisioned the property as a series of concentric circles. At the center was a minimalist fountain framed by buildings, including the 1816 stone house. He likened the site to a medieval village. Nearby, an old apple orchard was rejuvenated with younger trees planted in a loose grid.
On a slope lined in boxwood, Mavec introduced her own intervention: an oval clearing with an outdoor sculpture of tree stumps arranged in an infinity symbol, encircling a totem decorated with deer antlers. The installation lends a sense of stillness and spirituality.
A path leads to the largest clearing: a field of wildflowers. In his book essay, Caruncho recalls that the landscape initially felt like “an encroaching army,” as if the surrounded woods threatened to close in. His solution was to trim back the trees, shaping the field into a perfect oval, with trails radiating into the forest. This is horse country—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis once rode in Pottersville—and while Mavec no longer rides, the trails welcome both horses and hikers.
Ngoc Minh Ngo
Near the field is the “Party Barn” where Mavec hosts everything from seasonal dinners to bigger events like family weddings. From inside, one sees the “Monastery Garden,” where her favorite flower, the iris, blooms in geometric layout. Caruncho, known for mathematical precision, applies his principles here: within a larger rectangle, eight triangular flowerbeds surround a central birdbath. Since his initial involvement, the garden has expanded; Mavec is now assisted by a small team in its upkeep.
Yet not all is orderly. The fruit and vegetable garden celebrates wildness, with flowers mingling among beans, cherries, pears, melons, tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes. Mavec often starts seeds in the greenhouse, transplanting them outdoors as the weather warms. She and Nordberg cook what they grow.
Open Gallery
The walk back to the main house passes a swimming pond dating to Adams’ era. Mavec relaxes here, reading and watching frogs, turtles, and fish from beneath the shade of a cabana designed by architect Manuel Castillo. In summer, her grandchildren swim in the pond.
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.
Courtesy of Rizzoli
Janet Mavec’s new book about her New Jersey garden.