Home » Plants & Animals » Gardening in B.C. » Canadian Gardening Magazines Online

Canadian Gardening Magazines Online

© Susan Ward

Looking at gardening magazines online is a lot more pleasant than charging out in the rain and snow to visit a newsstand. Some of these sites offer extra articles and plant information online that they don't include in their 'hardcopy' versions. Here's some of my Canadian picks and pans:

http://www.canadiangardening.com/ Canadian Gardening Online Home Page 5 stars One of my favourite online magazine sites because it's relatively uncluttered, easy to navigate, and has information on just about everything any gardener would want to know about. I really enjoy their site of the week feature, which can lead you to all kinds of interesting information you wouldn't have found on your own. This week's site is Nothern Pond, which features online tours of people's gardens and links to garden all over North America. Like most of the big gardening magazine sites, there's a chat section (called Garden Talk), access to catalogues, and articles and links to other gardening sites galore.

http://www.canadianhouseandhome.com/ Canadian House & Home Online 2 1/2 stars This is a general house and home magazine, the sibling of the television show. They do have a gardening life section, though. If you click on the Gardening Life icon right now, you'll arrive at the cover page of the Fall Gardening Life issue, which advertises a host of really interesting-sounding articles by experts such as as Marjorie Harris and Thomas Hobbs. The problem is, like a great many other online magazines, the page exists solely to advertise; you can't read any of these articles online. Give this one a miss, unless you really just can't get enough of these people on TV or really want to know what's in the magazine without visiting a newsstand.

http://www.gardenmag.com/ The Virtual Gardener 4 stars I really like the organization and readability of this site; it's clean, has a simple, always accessible menu, and has a 'splash page' that actually provides a preview of other pages you might want to visit. Why only four stars, then, you say? Well, so far, there just isn't a lot of content here; if you're looking for information on a particular plant, chances are good you won't find it here, and no back issues appear to be available. I suspect that this site will grow exponentially in the future, and it's certainly worth taking a look if you're just browsing.

http://www.britishcolumbiagardener.com/ British Columbia Gardener 2 stars Formerly Coastal Grower, this is a great magazine with a poor to middling Web site. Like most gardening magazine sites, their site's prime reason for being is to sell subscriptions to their magazine, and you won't find much else here. You can read the table of contents of this month's issue online, but you can't read any of the articles. There is a 'Seasonal Tip' and a 'Native Plant' section you can read online. The site also suffers from a lack of regular updating; the 'current' issue is months behind.