Customer Reviews

Organic Gardening (2-year)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've received the magazine for a few years and its pretty good. Not so much groundbreaking, but some interesting articles. But I give it one star because of new policies in place. I got a pretty nasty letter from the "Rodele Credit Department" (the publisher of OG) with harsh phrases like "in an attempt to collect this debt...", "to give you a chance to resolve this matter before it goes further...". "You must respond to this letter to resolve this matter." I thought, wow, this is how you ask me to renew my subscription? Using strong-arm tactics for renewal of a Green Magazine? This is unexpected. I'm feeling bullied.
Talking to their customer service today, twice, they freely admit that customers are slammed into auto-renewal if they don't respond saying "no" to something I don't even remember receiving. Then they are threatened with collection procedures for not paying "what I already owe". Yuk! Double yuk! This can be straightened out with a phone call, and they say they won't ding my credit report for "non-payment", they allowed me to "cancel". But who needs this? Who wants a magazine that wants to add stress to my life?
Come on Rodele, clean up your act please. Treat us with dignity and courtesy and we'll be loyal customers. Hazing and threatening us is not the experience we're looking for.

This is a pretty decent magazine for organic gardeners. It is rather thin though. I haven't found myself needing some of the info given, but other articles have been useful. This of course makes sense because we all grow different things! There are articles that aren't related to gardening. For example, the issue of organic & non organic milk. I think this would relate more to an issue on farming not gardening. Plus it wasn't even about raising your own cows, it was about factory cows, milk in the store. Anyway, it's a decent source for the beginner. The best resource out there is the Rodales Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening. It is simply PACKED with useful information.

I subscribed to Organic Gardening decades ago when the magazine was digest size, printed on non-glossy paper, and jam packed with in-depth, substantive articles that took hours to read and even longer to think about. Now I can read the entire magazine in a brief sitting, and rarely find much to mull over afterward. It's departed from its origins as an intelligent publication focusing on the precepts and practicalities of growing organically, in favor of pandering to the attention-challenged reader who can't--or won't--concentrate on anything beyond quick bytes and pretty pictures. In short, it's abandoned a grown up approach for that of a little child's picture book without much content. I may or may not renew my subscription when it expires in another year. The few interesting bits that crop up--surprisingly--from time to time may keep me engaged. We'll see what the next year brings.

Sometimes the small gardener, the home gardener needs some help. This magazine provides easy to understand how-to's and good reviews and information on planting and nurturing plants depending on area, weather, etc.

I would highly recommend it!

I do like this magazine and read it cover to cover when it arrives, however, I noticed that since the new editor took over (summer 09), the amount of content related to specific gardening advice has decreased. This content has been replaced by more enviro-social-health information that is available in the other Rodale subscription I have (Bicycling). Since I am looking for a magazine that focuses on gardening I have let my subscription lapse and will be purchasing Fine Gardening this year instead. I bought a copy and it is full of great beginner gardening tips!

Love the magazine but the customer service is not to my liking. Right
at this moment the "contact customer service" feature is not working
online. I cannot send them an email.They have made a mistake with my bill and I want to talk to someone. There is no number available to talk to a real person.I did contact customer service earlier and got
back what seemed to be some pre-programmed answer that did not help
me and that I was not able to forward a response to. They also have
an automatic renew feature that you have to be careful about. I was
able to cancel this feature with no problem.Love the magazine. Poor
rating because of customer service(it's just a magazine!). I can go
to the library. I have 2 subscriptions and I will not renew.

So far I am dissatisfied with the format change in this magazine. I agree with other reviewers that I find fewer useful articles that describe techniques I can use in my own garden. They seem to have expanded the cooking/recipe section- this doesn't impress me- if I wanted recipes, I would subscribe to a cooking magazine specific to the kind of food I like to cook.

I remember reading this as a kid when it was smaller in size, came every month and was absolutely packed with pages on everything. It was fun to read all the ads and it took a real long time to read alll the articles. It's full size now, comes every two months. Although the main article in my first issue was timely (poppies), I just wasn't impressed with the mag.

Organic Gardening/Rodale Press has always given the public great value for our money. A winning magazine that's chock full of information. Love it!

I just received my first issue of Organic Gardening and it is all I hoped it would be. There are answers to the questions I had as a novice gardener. I look forward to more of the same in the future.