The 11th May issue of Amateur Gardening (AG) Magazine represents an impressive milestone for the world’s oldest gardening magazine. Launched on the 3rd May 1884, the magazine has been supporting and encouraging families of gardeners for generations, providing readers with practical accessible advice, while celebrating the simple, yet profound pleasures of gardening.
The magazine was closed in September 2023 and purchased by Kelsey Media in October. The first relaunch issue was available in November, now published in a reinvigorated fortnightly format under the guardianship of the new editor and environmental gardening journalist, Kim Stoddart.
This bumper birthday issue, which will be on sale from the 7th of May, will feature expert contributors, old and new and looks to the gardening past for inspiration for a more resilient and sustainable future for us all. Highlights include; a special by former deputy editor, Alan Titchmarsh with a trip down memory lane, and TV presenter, Toby Buckland returning to the AG family fold. AG expert contributors including Ruth Hayes, Bob Flowerdew, Graham Clarke, Anne Swithinbank, Lucy Chamberlain, Val Bourne, Sue Bradley, Michael Perry, Beth Chatto Gardens, John Negus, Michael Palmer, Andrew Oldham and Adam Kirtland, Liz Zorab, Chris Collins and Garden Organic, will also feature in this special edition.
Editor Kim Stoddart explains: “The flurry of media attention that the closure of this national gardening gem of a magazine generated in September last year helped capture the attention of Kelsey Media who stepped in to save it. I was thrilled and honoured to be chosen as the editor to take AG forward and to help ensure the magazine remains as relevant to gardeners today as it was 140 years ago. Gardening styles, attitudes and concerns may be very different now to what they were in 1884, but AG’s mission remains unchanged, to make gardening more rewarding and enjoyable for all its readers. The spirit of AG continues rejuvenated, working towards a brighter green future for us all, together.”
Former deputy editor Alan Titchmarsh MBE said: “I was relieved and delighted when ‘AG’, as we always called it, was saved from extinction. I had happy years there, becoming Deputy Editor in 1978, and have always rated the quality of the contributors and the hands-on practicality of its advice. Congratulations on your 140th birthday ‘AG’ from an old and devoted admirer.”
The 140-year-old magazine was founded in London in 1884 by Shirley Hibberd. Notable writers for the magazine over the years have included gardening guru Alan Titchmarsh, who also served as deputy editor, Gardeners’ World presenters Monty Don, and Percy Thrower, Ground Force presenter Charlie Dimmock and Bob Flowerdew, Anne Swithinbank, and Peter Seabrook.