Country Living publishes a quarterly magazine called Country Living GARDENER and BHG publishes a quarterly titled Country Gardens. Of the two, the BHG mag tends to have a bit more gardening 'meat' and fewer articles on decorating or recipes. But both of them are heavy into advertising, are primarily pictoral and light on substance. I'm not sure I'd bother to subscribe to either - I tend to check out the latest issues at the grocery store checkout line and only purchase if there is something of overriding interest in a specific issue.

I have subscribed to the BHG "Country Gardens" magazine and I enjoyed it. It does indeed have many gorgeous pictures but I love them and the articles are to me interesting. Pick up an issue at the drug store or supermarket just to make sure you enjoy it. I must confess that I am a magazine junkee and subscribe to many different magazines. I don't much like the decorator ones though. I get many of the gardening ones and enjoy lots of them. It depends on what you like. You could always take a trip to a Barnes and Noble, pick a few up and browse through them at the cafe with a nice beverage!!! Then you would know which are your favorites! Everyone has different tastes!

I used to subscribe to Counry Gardens and Country Living Gardener. Nice eye candy. Good to gaze through while snuggled inside from the cold or outside on a garden bench in high summer. But, like any sweets, too much can become a little sickening for me and not provide good "garden" nourishment. I much prefer a good combo of candy & balanced diet I can get from mags like "Fine Gardening" and AHS's "The American Gardener". "Garden Gate" is another good one and it's devoid of any advertising.

I just subscribed to Fine Gardening after years of not taking any gardening magazines. I got so tired of all the ads and the articles seemed to be repeating themselves. I must admit that the two magazines I have received of Fine Gardening have been absolutely wonderful. It is kind of pricey, but I highly recommend it.

I used to take Horticulture, but they changed the print type and I could barely read it without very bright lights and a magnifying glass. Also it was a bit too "upscale" for my country tastes!

I subscribe to three gardening magazines. Fine Gardening and Horticulture are the more serious ones. I just subscribed to Country Gardens after picking it up in the store for years. I love the pictures and it give me ideas on combining plants. Great for a cold winter day, too.

Isn't is funny how two people look at the same thing so differently. I ordered Fine Gardening and recently received the Mar/Apr issue, and just sent them an email to cancel my subscription. They are supposed to have regional information, but there was NOTHING in there for the Rocky Mountains OR the High Plains. Most of the plants highlighted in the articles either needed shade (none here) or weren't cold hardy to my zone. The pictures were all of these lush gardens that bear no resemblance to the realities of gardening in the arid West.

While I realize that each issue has a different emphasis and maybe my area will be covered in another issue, for $30 for only six issues per year (and thin ones at that), there had better be something useful for me in EVERY issue.

I am sorry for the rant, but soooo many people recommended this magazine that I was truly disappointed.

jean, There is a garden magazine just for Virginia gardeners that is good and don't have a lot of advertizing except what you may be interested in.
They have magazines for other states in the south that you can link to.
I get the Arkansas Gardener.
vickie

Here is a link that might be useful: Virginia Gardener

HAT, I don't think many gardening magazines promote themselves as being necessarily a "how-to" publication but rather a source of ideas and inspiration, that can be adapted to your specific climate and location and personally, I think Fine Gardening fits that bill rather nicely. I'm surprised you didn't get valuable input from the listing of "high-powered" perennials, most of which are hardy in any area of the country, plus the Southwest regional report would include those suitable for growing in Colorado and high desert areas. These regional reports vary from month to month and often include a Rocky Mountain variation.

And then there is all the garden design information, which, aside from plant selection that is more site-specific, provides some great ideas. I though their presentation of paving materials and walkway examples very well done as was the article on how best to combine and use variegated plants. Sure, maybe not all those plants would be hardy for you, but the techniques and design elements involved transcend location.

You may want to check out Sunset Magazine. This is a west coast publication that addresses all of west, including the high mountain areas and the southwest. They publish regional editions that are directed towards specific areas, including a Rocky Mountain edition. This is not a totally gardening-oriented publication however - it will include food, enetrtaining and living articles in addition to regionally appropriate gardening articles. Sunset also publishes a whole range of gardening and landscaping books.