Book Reviews
of The Landscaping Ideas of Jays

"These are the words of a garden dreamer — joyful, hopeful, yet down to earth and brimming with horticultural smarts. The author, a Marin County seed proprietor and landscape consultant, is restoring a 1 1/4 -acre garden and 80 acres of third-growth forest. Her book, also due out next month, shares what she sees and how she listens. "Let our gardens school us," she says.

Because the short chapters were written as separate essays, there's some redundancy. Still, the text flows blithely, and most sections close with a paragraph of rhythmic rapture, an experience woven in vivid prose. We discover the importance of willows, the lessons of woody debris, the brilliance of three legendary women of California horticulture.

This is nature and garden writing at its best: based on science, revelatory, inspired and inspiring. The author's insights are interspersed with excerpts and anecdotes from other writers and personal mentors. It leaves the reader wanting more — and for that, one can see her previous collection of essays, Gardening With a Wild Heart."

"Willful, eloquent, and humorous, Judith Lowry broadens and deepens the themes found in her popular first book, Gardening with a Wild Heart. Grizzly bear and scrub jay join native people and a company of colorful personalities in a celebration of our home ground, a place called California."

"In humorous, accessible, and inspirational prose, Judith Larner Lowry reminds us that California truly does have real seasons. All we have to do is listen to the native animals and plants around us."

"With much beauty and elegance, Judith Lowry underscores the importance of restoration gardening as a way to honor Native American traditions, protect biodiversity, and restore our relationship with the earth. A must read for those interested in how we might become truly native to the places where we live."

"Within the pulse of California's five seasons, this finely calibrated treatise is a beguiling and eminently accessible model of a restoration gardener's physical and mental engagement with the vegetable world. From the horticultural accomplishments of formidable women in her field to the age-old interactions between animals and plants, Lowry gives us an attentive, lyrical guide to full inhabitation of our landscape."

"Judith Larner Lowry combines a spiritual love of nature with practical suggestions and stories for renewal of the beauty and restorative power of gardens. She leads you through the 'five' seasons of California gardening and lays a plan to recreate, renew and revive California's natural native beauty and in the process your soul."