garden design magazines

I was asked recently what magazines and other things I look at on a regular basis to get ideas and find out what is happening in the world of garden & design.  It can be a time consuming occupation pouring through magazines and finding things on the internet, but I do flick through a few mags on a fairly regular basis to see what is going on in the world of plants, design and all things garden.

Of course some mags are better than others, but there is always something to be gleaned.  Without making the list too long these are a few that I stick to on a fairly regular basis. 

My favourite would have to be Gardens Illustrated and it is one of the most interesting and intelligent gardening magazines around.  A UK publication, so sometimes its very 'English'  and the gardens don't alwasy translate to our climate, but its nice to know there is a whole nation obsessed with gardening and all things botanical. They also have some great podcasts.

I also look at a couple of American magazines on a fairly regular basis, Garden Design and Fine Gardening.

In Australia, I find the publications not as finished as the OS ones and there is a lot of the same things over and over again.....there is also a hefty emphasis in Australian magazines for vegetable gardens and very little else.  We just dont seem to be able to understand that there is so much more to gardening than just growing vegetables. And where are all the articles about interesting people in the professional gardening world rather than joe blog down the road. 

But it is good to look at Gardening Australia magazine and the Organic Gardener that come out of ABC.  Peter Cundall is usually headlines in Organic gardener and who doesn't like Peter Cundall....!

I also occassionally look at The English Garden which have just recently put out a newer magazine called The Edible Garden that is quite good also.

Australian Country Style often have great gardens to pour over and can be very inspirational and their facebook page is sometimes fun to have a look at.

The general house and design magazines have embraced gardens and gardening finally and so I always have a flick through Australian House and Garden, Home Beautiful, Vogue living, Inside Out, Belle etc etc. (usually in the library)

And here is a hint, if you don't want to go and buy them all to look at them monthly, most good libraries will carry many of these magazines.  I often zip up into the library for a quick flick through all the monthly house and garden type mags....it keeps one up to date and can give you a whole half an hour of blissfull peace and quiet.

I was also sent recently a list that a friend found on the internet of the top 10 garden design blogs, which made a bit of interesting reading.  It came out of America, so if you do a quick search using Australia searching then you can find quite a few blogs running around Australia as well that are quite fun to have a read of sometimes.

And just for a little gardening interest other than magazines....this light show by artist Bruce Munro at Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia looks fabulous.

People are doing fab things in gardens all over the world.

If you know of any other great garden/gardening publications please let me know.