Thanks for the update buyorsell888! Putting out a zine is a real undertaking and very time demanding depending upon the period of release, be it monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, or yearly. Also the industry has never really been THAT strongly based since much of the interest may be either tentative or wavering. I think that the main reason why is that the expense of putting in a water garden and maintaining it is just too much for the level of income and time available for those who really would be interested. That is one reason I have always hoped to see some kind of inexpensive preform package that was relatively care-free but not to be. Too many parties wanting to exploit whatever market there is to sell product that may be good but may not be necessary. If someone had the time it would not be difficult to set up an online zine geared towards hobbyists interested in low cost ponding. I would suggest making use of Photobucket and creating pages entirely as jpegs. I am sure if anyone had the time to cordinate the site and edit that different submissions could be included. Just some thoughts.

I want to add my two cents worth about my disappointment with the way Org. Gardening has turned out. I have read it for decades and am now reluctantly giving up. Garden Design is useless. Love Fine Grardening - yeah, it's lots of pictures (I think the best photography of the lot), but really good articles and advice. I have volumes going back for years - that's the one I keep. And I share them a lot w. new gardeners and friends. It's easy to locate specific articles with useful info. Also like Horticulture a lot. And I have just become a "member" of New England Gardening Club - primarily for the magazine People, Plants and Places - which is really quite good, but also because with joining comes a discount card for many NE garden centers and nurseries. This advice is only useful for NE, obviously - but if you are in this region check it out at newenglandgardening.com. I also belong to the Americal Horticulural Society and their magazine is excellent - that's an expensive join, but I get free entrance to many botanical gardens and so it pays me to do this (besides which, it's a good org to support_) I know this is supposed to be about least favorite but, hey, it just leads one to think about what one DOES like. sorry if this is incorrect

Marlene, you've going to love it. If you have to move to a new zone and be a 'newbie', it's going to be a helluva lot more easier to go to zone 9 from 5 than to do it like I did, which was the reverse. (Here I'm a total idiot and learning the hard way.) You're going to have a much bigger selection of flowers/plants in that zone than where you're from. You will find that some plants that you considered 'annuals' aren't really over there because the fall/winter doesn't get cold enough to kill them. You will find that certain plants that other parts of the US consider more 'exotic', arent' considered that there. Like here, if I want night blooming Jasmine, I have to buy a 40 dollar plant from a nursery and keep it indoors in the winter. There? I can get one for 7 bucks at Target or in the racks in front of Payless and it's a perennial. It will grow like a weed. If you do Bougenvilla, do it in a very bright exposure. If you plant it in the right place, it will be amazingly beautiful and will grow like a weed. If you do it and it takes off, buy yourself a chain saw. I'm not kidding. Those suckers have thorns and over time, the branches can get thick. Walnut Creek has very hot summer periods. No humidity. No bugs. And not much (if any) rain. That part of the Bay Area (East Bay on the other side of the Oakland Hills) also is far more likely to be concerned with water usage. I've been out of the area for about a year and a half, so I don't know what the deal is right now, but I do know that you're given a basic allotment and if you exceed it, you will have one helluva water bill. So take it slowly with big planting for a few months until you find out what that bill is. At the very least, call and find out the parameters for your location so that you don't get surprises. Oftentimes, water usage for a certain year is based upon the previous year. So if the person that owned your house last year wasn't a big gardener, be extra skippy careful. Using mulch is not optional. It helps to keep the plants from being stressed from the heat and holds water. Containers in the summer will have to be hand watered daily. (Mulch them too.) And even if you have sprinklers, you might be doing that in other areas too. There will be plants that require cold that you won't be able to grow. Peonies don't exist. Lilacs only bloom in certain microclimates. A good book to start with is Sunset's Western Garden Book. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0376038519/102-5973663-2617723?v=glance&n=283155 Winters are very different. You don't do things like blowing out your sprinklers. You don't say goodbye to your lawn mower. And depending upon the weather, you may have to water year around. You may see trees at the end of winter that drop most of their leaves just as the spring buds form. Spring comes much earlier. You'll be pruning roses at the end of January. Gardening is not something that you stop doing, you just slow down. Long rainy periods mean that you don't have to mow! LOL You don't have big fungal problems with lawns over there, but you might trade that for things like rust on the roses during excessively rainy years. And during that time, plan on buying ant stakes. When the weather is really wet (and it hasn't been for awhile), the ants like to come inside. But compared to Japanese beetles and God knows what else the Midwest has, it's a breeze in comparison. Btw, for entertainment purposes, if you're into produce, check out the Berkeley Bowl (a grocery store, obviously in Berkeley). Their meat is not fabulous, but damn, the produce section is to die for! Especially in spring. Andronico's is good too, but it's more expensive... Have fun! I'll shut up now, I'm getting homesick. You're going to do fine!

Depends on your decor style: But here's my list: Veranda Southern Accents Traditional Home Country Home Country Living House Beautiful Better Homes & Gardens Plus various special publications by Meredith Publications (they publish monthlies and then put special larger "magazine/softcover decor books" together for a specific market -- like French Country or Beautiful Southern Homes etc.) Plus I read the English decor magazines at Borders or Barnes & Noble. Jan