j. siegel designs - resources

magazine reviews

We’ve reviewed some of the best gardening magazines on the market. Hopefully, this will simplify your next trip to the newsstand when you’ve only got five bucks to spend, but an armful of magazines you’d like to take home. Some of the factors we looked at included quality of layout, relevance of information, and applications to the home gardener and landscape. We’re simply trying to give an idea of what you can expect to find when you’re out hunting for a good gardening read.

Fine Gardening

Fine Gardening experienced a substantial makeover in the past year or two. It’s a long- running, quality publication put out by the Taunton Press and is available monthly. The layout of FG has remained consistently accessible: each department has a number of mini-articles that can combine to make for a good read. And applications to the home gardener and landscape are typically right on: soil health, pruning, and plants for difficult sites have all been featured articles. Budget gardening solutions appear alongside big-ticket “dream” projects. The review of tools that they feature is quite helpful, as is the “tips” section. Unfortunately, the one thing that seems to have changed with this magazine is its target audience. Stories that were once featured had appeal to experienced gardeners and designers, and challenged those readers who were more novice than expert while still being an accessible read. Articles now are much more basic, and while the topics are still important and practical, the presentation of the info is often lacking in its former sophistication. Still, FG remains a formidable contender. Check out www.finegardening.com

Gardening Life

Aah, Canada. They seem to really have it figured out up there: low crime, good economy, available healthcare, and a fabulous gardening magazine called gardening life. Maybe you’re thinking, “What grows in Canada besides lichens?” A whole lot apparently (Canada actually has a broad range of zones from 0 to 8a). In the first few pages of this immediately accessible magazine, one realizes that the Canadian gardeners this magazine targets are some pretty sophisticated green thumbers. From gorgeous, sleek, and decidedly modern rooftop gardens in eternally hip Toronto, to “new wave rustic” gardens in the wild, wide-open of rural Canada, this magazine gracefully showcases a wealth of useful info. Their “Closeup” section highlights some very interesting perennials, both tried and true ones as well as some that are less obvious. “Green Talk” presents the latest in trends and news for the Canadian gardener. There, one can read about the in’s and out’s of garden processes like seed-saving, then turn the page to find out about the hot new garden center that’s just opened its doors. Honestly, there’s just too much to be excited about in the pages of this bi-monthly publication!

Gardening life sets itself apart in another way that’s especially refreshing. While some of our homegrown gardening magazines may also present some similarly thought-provoking material, they often do so without keeping the budget-minded gardener in the picture. The layout and stories that appear in US gardening magazines can be great, but the typical gardener will likely have a hard time applying many of the ideas presented to their own landscapes. Not so for those reading gardening life. Their “High Low” section highlights some of the current must-haves available to those gardeners on both tight and big budgets. Similarly, articles whose focus is on a grander design scale often conclude with suggestions for applications of ideas on a smaller scale.

There is one catch to this magazine: its price. Since it does come from Canada, American subscribers are subject to increased subscription rates. Seven issues (that’s for one year) are $34.95US. Still, it’s definitely worth the extra money you’ll spend to have this delivered to your door.
Info is available online through their website www.gardeninglife.ca. You can also phone them toll-free at 800-559-8868.

The Garden Letter

This publication doesn’t have the fancy gloss that others do, but it also doesn’t have full-page ads to wade through before you find an article to read. The information in this fun to read newsletter is excellent. Bonnie Blodgett, GL’s editor extraodinaire, has a voice that is especially engaging and adds a big dose of humor. Even though the publication hails from St. Paul, Minnesota, we Chicagoland gardeners might do well to try some of the tips from up North. The harsh conditions Minnesotans experience are not too different from some of the extremes we see in our own region. It’s available quarterly by subscription only, but you can also read select articles online by going to their new website www.gardenletter.com

The Weedpatch Gazette

While no longer a published newsletter, gardeners, horticulturists, and designers alike can still access the Weedpatch online. For those who remember waiting for its info-packed arrival every other month, you’ll likely agree that all that was really missing from this excellent publication was the glossy pages. Even with its simplicity in design, the Weedpatch Gazette, put out by Editor Rommy Lopat, consistently gave gardeners plenty to consider with numerous articles covering every relevant topic under the gardener’s sun. Certainly applicable to the home gardener, the stories featured were often written by guest columnists, some of them highly respected horticulturists in the field.
To access the site go to www.weedpatch.com. Rommy has been busy adding new applications to the site to make it even more resourceful.