I don't necessarily have one simple favorite, but there are some I find more useful than others.

My favorite regional magazine is Texas Gardener. Yes, I know we are in Oklahoma, but this is a superb magazine. I read it for many years before moving here and didn't stop reading it just because we moved here. It is published by the same parent company that published the best vegetable gardening book I've ever read...The Vegetable Book: The Texan's Guide to Gardening by Dr. Sam Cotner.

I also read Neil Sperry's Gardens magazine when I lived in Texas but haven't kept up with it here....Texas Gardener is available in stores near me but I'd have to subscribe to Neil's and I just never 'get around to' doing that. I've read Oklahoma Gardening from the state-by-state gardening empire and it is OK, but I don't like it as much as I like Texas Gardener.

Many years ago, I read all of them....Fine Gardening, Horticulture, the National Gardening Association's magazine (athough I can't remember the name of it now), Country Gardens, Kitchen Gardener or Kitchen Gardening (now defunct, it was published by the same folks who publish Fine Gardening), Organic Gardening (now a mere shadow of its once superb self, I'm sad to say) and Garden Gate as well as various other ones published seasonally by Better Homes and Gardens, like their annual Rose specialty mag or their annual Perennial one or whatever.

That was long ago, and I don't read as many of those as I used to. Since moving to the country and getting more and more into growing crops as opposed to ornamentals, and having animals and many other country interests, my reading interests have changed. Now I am more likely to read Hobby Farm, Hobby Farm Home, Mother Earth News, Grit, Countryside and Urban Farm. Of all these, my favorite is Urban Farm, which is brand new. I enjoyed the premiere issue and an anxiously awaiting the second issue although I don't even know if they have a target date for the second issue. I think it is published by the same folks who brought us Hobby Farm and Hobby Farm Home, and they started out slow but gained readers quickly and began to appear more often....quarterly now I think.

For sheer beauty and inspiration, I enjoy Birds and Blooms magazine which features not only birds and blooms, but lots of butterflies and moths as well.

I think you have to find the magazine that best suits your interests. If you are more into ornamentals, you might like Fine Gardening the most of all. Or, if you're looking for practical ways to beautify your landscape, Garden Gate is top-notch. If you're into homesteading, it has to be Countryside and if you are into homesteading and ecology, it has to be Mother Earth News.

Another fine publication that seldom gets mentioned in these discussions is Green Prints, which is a magazine of little stories and tales more like the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. It is superb, but I don't recall that is has any hands-on stuff...more inspiration and heart-warming stuff. I used to buy it occasionally when I lived in Fort Worth, but haven't seen it on the newstands here.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas Gardener

Thank you Dawn, as always, you are a wealth of information!

I don't buy too many magazines any more. For the first 5 or 6 years of gardening, I purchased a lot.

They have gotten so expensive that now I just go to Border's or Barnes & Noble and look at the discount table for books on sale. That is where I found THE BEST gardening book I have ever owend, and I own a lot! It is called Southern Living Garden Book. I got the 2004 edition a couple of years ago and it is WONDERFUL! It lists plants botanically from A to Z, and it has sections on plants for gardening in the shade, gardening for butterflies, xeriscape gardening, vegetable gardening, and on and on and on. It is a big book - 720 pages long. I got it on sale at Border's for $10 and I expect they will be publishing an updated version very soon.

Can't recommend it enough. Suggestions are made for Upper South, Middle South (us), Lower South, Coastal South, and Tropical South, and it is packed with information on a myriad of topics as well as the individual plant listings (includes veggies).

I could only have purchased two magazines for the cost of this invaluable book. The magazines have gotten so expensive! Anyway, thought I would add this info for you, too.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Southern Living Garden Book

Susan,

Many of my favorite gardening books are from Southern Living and from Sunset too. I have a lot of the old Sunset annuals from the 1990s and 2000s and I found all of them on the sale table at Hastings in Denton or at one of the Half-Price Books stores.

I agree that they are pricing themselves out of the market...just look at how many gardening magazines have 'disappeared' in the last decade or so.

And, by the way y'all, the spring issue of 'Urban Farmer' is on the newstands now. I found it on the magazine rack at Lowe's yesterday and bought it.

I think y'all have a Half-Price Book store in OKC now, don't you? They also have magazines for half-price and I used to buy lots of gardening magazines at the HPB stores in Fort Worth when I lived there. You also can sell your old books and magazines to them but they don't give you much for them.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Half-Price Books new location in OKC