海角大神

It鈥檚 true that more gardening information than you can ever use is available free on the Internet.

But I like gardening magazines 鈥� , , , and -- and the garden sections of some home magazines 鈥� , , and 鈥� even though I have to pay for them.

I can take a magazine along on a plane or just carry it out into the garden. I can build up a pile of them to read during the shivery winter days when I鈥檓 longing to be outdoors digging in the dirt.

And I often go back through them, 鈥渄iscovering鈥� a plant that I recall wanting to try at the time but couldn鈥檛 find or got busy and forgot about.

The other day a nice compromise between online and print unexpectedly came my way. It looks as good as a magazine, but it shows up in your e-mail inbox 鈥� and it鈥檚 free.Fine Gardening calls it a monthly eLetter. (You can sign up .)

The May 15 edition offers articles on clematis, morning glories and their beautiful kin, basil basics, window box how-tos, and remaking a flower bed.There鈥檚 an introductory paragraph and a color photo with each topic, then you click to go to a website to read the entire thing.

I printed out the one-page e-mail, which is sort of like a magazine cover, to keep as a reminder of the topics it covered.And I smiled as I did.

Yes, it鈥檚 the beginning of yet another file of gardening info 鈥� but at only one page at a time, it鈥檚 going to take years before it actually becomes a pile!

If you have other gardening newsletters you鈥檇 like to recommend, please leave a comment below.