garden magazines

so--now that fall is here, do y'all get garden magazines to sort of tide you over? i was wondering which ones are popular with daves gardeners--and same for seed catalogs--what are some good ones to send for? thanks in advance

My personal favorite magazine is Garden Gate. It has tons of ideas and info. And not all the advertising that clutters up so many others. Seed and flower catalogs? I order every one I can find, lol.

Great question! I spend hours looking thru seed catalogs and plant magazines. My favorites are: for bulbs--John Scheepers / Van Bourgondien. For seeds--Jung Seeds- For plants-Edmunds roses /-Brecks/ -Roots & Rhizomes/-McClure & Zimmerman. They have great catalogs !!!! (Birds and Blooms is a good magazine for picutres.)

This message was edited Oct 24, 2007 5:44 PM

The magazines i like are The American Gardener and Horticulture. For catalogs, I love Plant Delights Nursery, pricey, but very nice plants. This catalog tends to create way too many day dreams for me tho! My zone 5 garden is too cold for so many cool and fun plants...

This message was edited Oct 24, 2007 6:08 PM

I get Garden Gate, Fine Gardening, Horticulture, Garden Compass, Pacific Horticulture, Organic Gardening, Garden Design, and probably a couple others I don't remember off the top of my head! As well as Sunset and Natural Home & Garden which have some gardening things in them but also other things. I like them all for different things, so I'm not sure I could pick a favorite. Pac Hort & Garden Compass are more west-coast oriented but the rest of them cover the whole country.

Well Ecrane, I just told my husband your list of Mag's to prove to him that I was not the only one addicted to gardening books and Mag's.
How could I say what one would be my favourite, I love them all, when I visit the USA every year, I even cart some home with me, well husband does the carrying, I just try to look innocent when he tries to lift the luggage, I would guess your best bet would be to go to your book store and take an hour out to look through some of these mags till you see the one that suits you because they are expensive if you buy 2/3 each month, some here in UK are quarterly but it is like withdrawal symptoms waiting for the new one to come out, you will soon settle for one to suit your needs, at the back of these Mag's they very often have a couple of pages of adverts from growers ans seeds, so you can send off for some seed catalogues to get you started, BE WARNED, this is as addictive as gardening itself. good luck. WeeNel.

LOL--with an impressive list of gardening magazines like that, I see why ecrane is always so informative! And while WeeNel doesn't name her favorites she admits to being an addict so I can understand her abundant knowledge too. I do love to look at magazines but I'm an internet freak--I love to search for info on any/all types of plants or planting information I need. Garden Gate is one of my favorite magazines.

I subscribe to some of the garden mags listed above, but I also cruise through amazon and buy new and used gardening books! Some are as low as $3 plus shipping.

Backyard Living, Birds-n-Blooms, I also go to the local library and read the ones they have there. If I really like it I'll subscribe.

I subscribe to Backyard Living, Birds-n-Blooms, Better Homes and Gardens, Gardening How-to.
I get catalogs from everyone it seems, Brecks, Spring Hill, Wayside, Brent and Becky's, Bluestone, Jung, Gurneys, Gardener's Supply I can't even think of the rest.

did not want to give the names of the Mag's as I am in UK and they dont sell them in USA the zones, terminology and some of the plants name are different, so it gets confusing for some, because I am a frequent visitor to USA I do know some of the differences, I do web searches for plants and info but to be honest, not being the brightest button in the box, I like to have the books or mags to refer to over and over, also I like to look at the picture or plants, beds and garden lay outs, I also troll through second hand book stores if I come across them, I have picked up some real gems especially old gardening books, because I took over what was once a Victorian garden, and landscape, the old books have been invaluable to me as to why, how and what has been found in the grounds that I now garden, so books and mags for me are best as all the old gardening ways are dying out, and even though we have to move with the times, I always hark back to my dear old Dads teachings. Hope that answers your questions as to my gardening tastes and style. Good luck with your new reading material and save them to enjoy for many years to come. WeeNel.

As a rule, I don't buy the magazines. The never ending parade of ad pages that I have to flip through tend to annoy me....and the 'no ad' mags don't have enough in-depth 'meat'.

I DO however have a healthy collection of seed and plant retail catalogs. Something about actually holding them in my hands, and plotting and planning on my future spring gardens is soothing in the dead of winter.

I tend to spend my money on reference guides, and plant specific books at a bookstore.

The only gardening magazine I subscribe to religously is Texas Gardening. It is so appropriate for the whole state. It covers seasons, the different areas of the state and the wide variety of plants from fruits and vegetables to tropicals and succulents... annuals and perennials. I find it a worthwhile reference. http://www.texasgardener.com/ and No, I don't work for them ~ lol

thank you all for your suggestions--every christmas my family wants to know what i want--i can never think of anything--well-----------now i know!!

Plantolinda, your a girl after my own heart, so may I suggest you start a list of books and mag subscriptions and hint " OH dear, dont know which ones to choose" you never know, you may get a few, works every-time with my husband, he usually Say's he did not want to choose the wrong one, ha ha ha. good luck. WeeNel.

LOL, WeeNel, I just noticed you called her "PLANTolinda", instead of Planolinda--I like that better! Linda, you're gonna need to change your name, especially since you're a planto-holic now just like the rest of us. ;)

pretty funny!! i like it better too since mine sounds like "plain old linda" when what i meant was that i am linda and live in plano texas!

Oh, my, I never realized that! LOL

That is so funny. I was thinking Plain ole Linda also. I do like Plant-o-Linda too.

well i never joined a website before and so when it said to pick a name i put in linda and it said i needed more characters--so i just put in what came to my mind--had no idea this was a place i would be "hanging out"--thought i was just "stopping by"!!

Melody
I would love to subscribe to seed and plant catalogs! Where do I find them? Seems so many sites when I google them come in email form. I want a physical catalog that is delivered to my home address. Maybe I am looking in the wrong place.

Thanks!
Cissy

A lot of sites will send you print catalogs after you've ordered something from them. Or there's usually someplace on their website where you can order a paper catalog (it may be a little hard to find sometimes--it's cheaper for them if you just look at their online catalog)

I highly recommend checking the companies on our Garden Watchdog and requesting catalogs only from the ones with high ratings. I was getting rid of some old magazines yesterday, and found a Burgess catalog from 2004. Beautiful, tempting pictures and promises, but I checked their rating on Garden Watchdog, and promplty threw it into the recycling pile!

Backyard Living, Birds-n-Blooms, Organic Gardening, Mother Earth News, Southern Living, and I hit the library regularly for other choices.

thanks for all the ideas--doccat5--my daughter lives in fredericksburg--what a great area--she went to mary washington college and never wanted to leave! i don't blame her!!

Like the Fredericksburg area, although I actually live in Spots. It's grown so much and not always so well, but we do like it here very much. We've lived here since 79 and watched it just sort of sprout like mushrooms....LOL and you know what those grow best in.........grin

LOL, doccat, good one! What a funny name for a town, "Spots". Wonder how many dogs with that name reside there...

Sorry, KyWoods, it's actually Spotyslvania...........................Good thing I've had plenty of practice spelling that one. LOL

I don't subscribe to any gardening magazines, but I buy some from time to time when I have to look at a magazine rack for any longer than 2 minutes. lol

Funny story (to me, at least) - Last fall I was in the grocery store when I had a really bad asthma attack. I was coughing pretty badly, so I stopped in the magazine aisle to *pretend* I was looking at magazines while I used my inhaler & got it under control, which took about 10 minutes. I left with 3 gardening magazines. lololol

Barnes & Noble is a great place to read gardening magazines while drinking coffee, without having to buy them. I just hate magazines sitting around the house - I think they multiply on their own!

LOL, SCNewbie, next time you get an asthma attack in a store, maybe you'd better head for a different aisle! But then, you might miss something fun...

No kidding! lololol Maybe I better head for the diet food section next time.... lol

"Plantolinda"....good one!
As far as gardening magazines, I like "Mississippi
Gardener". Maybe the same publication for YOUR area can be found through statebystategardening.com. I like it because it is specific to my area, has "ask-the-experts" columns and a regional report every month for different areas of
the state. There are plant profiles, little projects, and landscaping ideas.The photos are really good too. I get "Garden Gate", too.

Vicksburg, Mississippi

Oooo, gonna check out that link myself--thanks for the tip, squirrely!

wow--now i just have to narrow it down!! thanks

I've been doing a lot of "armchair gardening" due to RSI and surgery this year. Because there have been times where my hands are so bad that holding a book for any length of time hurts, I've been looking for even more passive stuff.

I've discovered podcasts! My absolute favorite one is the Wiggly Wigglers podcast. It's a company in the UK that sells composting worms, but has expanded into just about anything you could want for wildlife gardening and sustainable gardening. The podcast doesn't give you a hard sell at all. It's full of infectious laughter, joshing, information on gardening, wildlife, agriculture, etc. It's just loads of fun to listen to. You can subscribe to it via iTunes or you can download MP3s from their podcast archive:

http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/podcasts/

Another one is the Alternative Kitchen Garden podcast from coopette.com And new is "Tales from Terry's Allotment" - a podcast by Terry Walton, an allotment gardener in South Wales. I found out about Terry when he was interviewed on the Wiggly Wigglers podcast and he's just a joy to listen to. A very funny man! He has gardened in his allotment since 1957 and shot to fame when the Jeremy Vine radio show on BBC2 decided to adopt an allotment - his! These can be subscribed to via iTunes.

I read the Garden Rant blog regularly. http://www.gardenrant.com/my_weblog/

I've enjoyed the videos of the Garden Wise Guys (a production of the Santa Barbara, CA water district). http://www.sbwater.org/LandscapeTV.htm

spidra, thanks so much for sharing those sites! I bookmarked them all, what a hoot! At this point, I'm working my way up to doing 4 season gardening. Virginia is a fairly temperate (looking jealously at her southern neighbors) so I can stretch my growing season.
I want a GH, but am right now am arguing with the county about permits. I'm not talking huge here. I swear these plp must be handed "dumb" pills when they walk in the door at work!

For the greenhouse...I remember reading a thread where someone else was having a similar problem (I think it was their HOA though not the county), and I think in their case the problem was if the greenhouse was a permanent structure. So I wonder if it would make a difference for you if you did a hoophouse or something that you took down during the warmer months and just put up temporarily for the winter?

More "passive learning" discoveries: iTunes has "iTunes U" where many universities are offering podcasts and recorded lectures for free. UC Berkeley has lectures from its basic biology and genetics classes online. If you go to the iTunes Music Store then enter "horticulture" in the search engine, you can find some things on iTunes U as well as some podcasts. I'm listening to "Horticultural Conspiracy Theories" from Penn State Cooperative Extension right now...

Horticultural conspiracy? Were invasives were sent here with evil intent? Sometimes I wonder! LOL

Heh! He actually addressed questions PA gardeners had sent them about a recent drop of beetles as a way to combat a local pest problem. People were confusing those beetles with the Hippodamia convergens Asian ladybugs that that try to overwinter in their houses.

I forgot to add that if you search on "garden" you'll get a lot more podcasts.