For the past twenty-eight years Judith Larner Lowry has been the proprietor of Larner Seeds in Marin County, California. She is author of "Gardening with a Wild Heart: Restoring California's Native Landscapes at Home" (UC Press) and her essays have appeared in "Orion, Bay Nature, " and other magazines and anthologies, including "American Nature Writing 1996", edited by John A. Murray. She lives in northern California.