I've been getting Gardening Life magazine for years along with Fine Gardening, Horticulture and Garden Design. I just decided to let GL and FG go because although they are nice enough magazines, the information in them was getting scimpier and scimpier-what's with having these little blurbs of general information instead of a meatier article with good photos, like once was in magazines? I also found they were repeating the same stuff, year after year, geared mostly to gardening neophytes. The deciding factor for Gardening Life came when they started an aggressive mail campaign to get me to resubscribe. The sub had run out and I was no longer receiving magazines but they persisted in sending me bills that were worded as if I were delinquint in payment and they would take legal action if I did not pay up. A disorganized or confused elderly person could easily think they actually were behind on payment and automatically send them some money. I didn't think that was a very ethical way to do business and sent an email off to them, making it quite clear I would not be resubcribing and haven't received any more bills since.

If he's stumbling into vegetable gardening, "Commonsense Vegetable Gardening for the South" is my Bible for veggie gardening. Having grown up in Illinois and spending 10 years in Alaska, the timing of when to plant here in Texas was my biggest obstacle. You can grow various things year-round, you just need to know when to plant, and what varieties do well here. This book is great for that. When he gets good, then he can experiment! This book is out of print, but you can generally find them used on Amazon. The authors have a new one out called "The Southern Kitchen Garden," but I really like the old one better. Here is a link that might be useful: Commonsense Vegetable Gardening Book

Thanks, L2C46. It's now May 23, so I'll move this down. I did buy a subscription, though. They are a bit "extreme" in some of their articles, but overall it's a pretty good magazine with some good recipes, low fat and low calorie and many vegetarian... Annie

Sounds like you are keeping busy--and out of trouble! Years ago we went thru London but I imagine things have changed. Seemed to remember it was a nice little town. Hope your winter is warmer than ours, but since Canada shared, guess we have to take what we get. Do enjoy your comments and have a great day. Marie