Like out-of-town friends, magazines pop by every so often to give you a colourful update on the latest happenings before taking up permanent residence on the shelf in the bathroom. Schedule a regular visitation with today's Groupon: for $17, you get a one-year subscription to GardenWise and BC Home magazines (a $35.78 value, including HST).

Saturating their six-issue lineups with a wealth of original information, GardenWise and BC Home magazines outfit readers with decor inspiration, design profiles, and practical how-tos. A product of Canada Wide Media, one of the largest independent magazine-publishing companies in Western Canada, GardenWise (a $19.95 + HST value/year) dazzles more than 190,000 green thumbs with exotic plant and garden bios, sustainable harvest techniques, and waterproof mood rings. Subscribers can enlist the periodical's feature stories to flourish marshmallow orchards or summon advice from leading herb artisans to fashion a colourful and healthy flowerbed. Each richly illustrated bimonthly includes a zone chart, a numerically organized garden guide that categorizes symbiotic native plants and growing environments in order to enrich backyards with an optimal yield.

Canada Wide also embellishes living quarters with BC Home magazine, a sophisticated publication teeming with home-renovation spreads, interior-design trends, and product spotlights (a $12 + HST value/year). Beneficiaries can scour the glossy for contemporary colour palettes, or bookmark food highlights, entertainment tips, and adult napping schedules in the good-living section. To flourish splashy wish lists, readers can peruse the profiles of the best celebrity abodes in the area from the comfort of their own kitchens.