This book is out of print now, but we offer lightly used copies!

by Judith Larner Lowry
University of California Press, 1999
paperback, line drawings and color photos, 252 pages

This lyrical and articulate mix of the practical and the poetic combines personal story, wildland ecology, restoration gardening practices, and native plant horticulture. Extremely well-received, this book is a classic in the fields of nature writing and restoration. Though based on California gardens, it has inspired readers from all over the country. Lowry was at the cutting edge of what is now a well-established movement.

"Gardening with a Wild Heart is Judith Larner Lowry's splendidly articulated account of twenty years of what she calls "gardening at the seam...between the wild and the cultivated."...She is practical, sensual, philosophical, and above all there on the land...This is a wonderful book full of lore and practical knowledge and beautiful writing...This, for me, is better than reading John Muir. It is real, it is local, it is alive and it is beautiful. Read this book and share it with your friends."

-William McClung, 
Growing Natives Research Newsletter

"Judith Lowry is among the most graceful of the new matchmakers who are arranging marriages between ourselves and the unique landscapes around us. Lowry gently guides us home by teaching us how to learn from the plants that grow wild outside our doorways. If native plant gardening is the way you'd like to spend your courtship of place, this book illuminates better than any I've seen the delights and surprises of such a path."—Freeman House, author of Totem Salmon

"Gardening with a Wild Heart has earned my highest recommendation. Judith Larner Lowry provides an insightful, inspirational, and timely account of the need to understand and foster our ecological heritage through the lens of one's own garden. Ideas and concepts important to the home restoration gardener are presented and discussed in a thought-provoking and enjoyable manner. The author's practical methods and down-to-earth observations are used to both illuminate and clarify many of the themes of this compelling book."—Bart O'Brien, Director of Horticulture, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont, California

"This book is destined to become a classic for the gardener's shelf both for its inspired and enlightened language, and its acute observation and practical information. Judith Lowry introduces us to the plants of her restoration garden, with their names and descriptions of their uniqueness. She gives us a heavenly view of California wildflower fields and describes the special beauty of seeds and the delicate taste of native plants. This is a living book, aware of the dignity of the plants themselves, with a love of place and value of what it is to be 'home'."—Joanne Kyger, author of Just Space