I like Gardens Illustrated for its mix of practical info, plant details, good visual ideas, and great photography. It's British, but lots of the plants it features will work in New England, and they've been giving USDA hardiness ratings a lot lately. The gardens they profile range from tiny city gardens to huge manors.

I saw that one; beautiful!

I take the Alabama one of this:

http://statebystategardening.com/

It's not very big, but they feature a local garden each time and do have some info.

I use to enjoy People, Places and Plants created by Paul Tukey. It has long since stopped publication. Now, I just buy individual magazines when I see something useful in it. As you stated, a lot of the present mags are filled with fluff, not substance. Don't want to be tied down to a subscription with info that wouldn't pertain to my area.

I really enjoy Mother Earth News. It's one of the very few that I actually read cover to cover. I also subscribe to Country Gardens, it's ok, seems to be geared more toward the southern states. I used to get Garden Gate & really enjoyed it but the subscription price sky rocketed after my initial year so I had to let it expire.

I LOVE the magazine Fine Gardening (Taunton Press). My S-I-L first gave it to me and I now give it as a gifts to people b/c it is such a great magazine. Awesome pictures, articles, ideas, trends, spotlights, etc. I think it is good for beginners as well as more experienced gardeners. Def try to find it.

I had heard positive things about Fine Gardening, and it was one of the reasons I posted.

The other reason was Garden Design magazine. 4 issues per year, 148 pages per issue and no ads, but a subscription is $45! But, with Garden Design the newsstand price is $52 per year ($13 per issue!), so the subscription doesn't save any real money. I was wondering if anybody had ever seen a copy. I keep going back to check it out, but I'd like to see just one magazine before I commit to $45. Need to get into the Big City and find a copy somewhere to look at. 148 pages without ads is a whole whole whole whole lot of gardening content!

I've got a free preview issue of Garden Gate coming, will probably get Fine Gardening for a year, too.

I recently subscribed to Garden Design. I love the format and featured gardens. You can get a single issue on their web site. I ordered several back issues in addition to my subscription. Order one and see if you like it. Or go to a book store with a good magazine selection and browse if there is one nearby.

Fine Gardening has a great podcast too.