Birds & Blooms, Truth without Advertising

Getting Birds And Blooms is like having a garden tour in your mailbox! Each issue is filled with pictures of real gardens, maintained by real people, not paid professionals. There is NO ADVERTISING in this magazine, just beautiful color pictures of... yes, Birds... and Blooms. When I sit down with this magazine, I feel like I'm strolling though a neighbors prize garden, oooing and ahhing over their precious plants and artful arrangements. Most issues have a section of pictures of birdfeeders and birdhouses, sent in by readers. The creativity that goes into some of these is just amazing. Bird and Blooms is a very reader oriented magazine. They have contests each month, and have done things like sponser a nationwide, "rural road" clean up. When they did that, they reasoned that bigger roads have people who 'adopt' them and keep them clean, so what could be done to encourage the cleanup of smaller, more rural areas. The Birds and Blooms staff went out and 'salted' rural roads, (I believe it was one in each state) with a hundred dollar bill in a special envelope. They then encouraged their readers to do the same, well, not necessarily with a hundred bucks, but even a dollar or two helped. And they let it be known that there was cash among the trash, so let's clean it up! That's one of the reasons I like this magazine so much. The readers answering other readers questions is a fantastic section also. I've learned more creative ways to discourage squirrels or encourage good "critters" than I'd thought possible. The BEST magazine for real gardeners, not pros!