I Dig It!! *Update!* (Gardeners World Magazine)

Name: Sarah_Unity

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Product:	Gardeners World Magazine
Date:	04/11/00 (119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good read – jam packed with gorgeous photographs!

Disadvantages: Appears to think that everyone has 20 acres of land to work in!!

Okay, so some of you reading this will be thinking that it’s just not normal for a 19 year old to have – and be proud of! – a subscription to Gardeners World magazines (although anyone who knows me would quickly point out that I’m not normal!!) But I DO have a subscription and, yes, I AM proud of it!!

I first came across an back issue of GW, dog-eared with vital pages torn out (WHY do people do that?!!) in a hospital waiting room and, when I escaped from the clutches of the medical profession, I went out and bought myself the newest issue.

There are two types of gardening magazines, those that are useful and those that just have pretty pictures but are full of completely impractical information (I’m sure I’d love some papier-mâché – if only I could be bothered making them!!). Gardeners World is helpful to both serious gardeners and to people like me who go out when they’re able to. As an added bonus, it looks gorgeous with bright, glossy photographs you could easily cut out and hang on the wall!

I’m not exactly what you could call a heavy-duty gardener - I’m more an ideas person! But I do like being out there when I can, imagining what it will look like and growing my own plants from seed. And that’s why I like Gardeners World above the many other magazines – it provides information on the little things (such as seed germination) along with many articles that fit the recent trend of garden makeovers.

It also has an extremely interesting column in every issue detailing the biology behind plants – how they grow, how the reproduce and how they fruit for example. It has a fairly strong environmental ethos, and tries to cater for not only the garden-obsessed people most garden magazines deal with (the sort that won’t have a single slug in their garden and think DDT should be reintroduced!) but also for the likes of me, the occasional dabbler who thinks
that slugs are fairly cute (if you look at them in the right light!!) and can’t bring herself to squish greenfly! It has balanced and thought provoking articles on both organic gardening and chemicals that are available for use, putting the environmental view across gently but firmly.

This is the magazine to buy if you’re one of the many in love with the delights of Alan Titchmarsh (one word: yeuch!!) as it has a liberal dosing of him and his wisdom in each issue. The newer TV gardeners, such as Rachel de Thame (yes, dear, you have nice hair; now PLEASE stop flicking it at the camera!!) and Chris Beardshaw are also liberally dotted around the pages.

My only real criticism of this magazine is that it does seem to forget that many or it’s readers will only have small and typically urban plots to work in, and not acres of sprawling lawns and water features! Small can be beautiful too, but GW chooses to concentrate on designs and ideas that are completely impractical for those with 10 metres x 10 metres to work in, with no alternative suggestions given on how the designs can be incorporated into small spaces.

In my opinion, this magazine also tends to rely a bit too heavily on the familiar gardening faces from the TV series of the same name. I’m sure they’re good, but it would be nice to hear some newer voices and ideas. This is a gardening magazine – if I wanted personalities I’d subscribe to “OK!” instead!!

For all that, though, Gardeners World is – and will continue to be – the magazine I buy to aid and inspire me when I get planting in the summer. It has helped me out many times in the last year when I needed information or encouragement and is written in clear English, not techno babble, with simple and easy to understand guides to understanding the plants that grow in the UK.

There isn’t a better gardening magazine out on the market and, with such
a low price; it is a bargain to those of us with green fingers!

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