About Turf & Rec

Turf & Rec

Overview

Turf & Rec is the trade magazine of Canada's turfgrass and grounds maintenance industry, published by Annex Business Media of Simcoe, Ontario. It serves the professionals who grow, maintain and manage turf and green spaces across the country: golf course superintendents, sports turf managers, municipal parks and grounds managers, landscape contractors and lawn care professionals. The magazine bills itself as "Canada's only national publication to serve the Canadian turf and grounds maintenance industry as a whole," a description it carries on its own website and presents as its defining position in the market.

The publication combines a print magazine with a frequently updated news website at turfandrec.com, e-newsletter subscriptions, webinars and podcasts. Its coverage spans the science of turfgrass agronomy, the machinery and irrigation technology used to maintain playing surfaces and public grounds, and the business and safety questions facing the people who do the work, from municipal field crews preparing for a national championship to the superintendent staff who readied Canada's stadiums for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

History

Turf & Rec was first launched in 1987, originally under Vancouver-based owners. Its back-page humour column, Duffer, dates from that launch and has remained a fixture of the magazine ever since; writing in the April–May 2017 issue, editor Mike Jiggens described the column as an institution since the magazine's first year, noting that it had by then passed to its third author after longtime contributor Ian Robinson's 21 years in the role.

In 1994, Bart Crandon purchased the magazine from its original Vancouver-based owners and moved its publishing office to Delhi, Ontario, in the province's southwest. Crandon published Turf & Rec for the next 22 years through his company, Turf & Recreation Publishing Inc., building it into the national voice of the turf and grounds maintenance trades. Annex Business Media, based in nearby Simcoe, was the magazine's printer for more than two decades before becoming its owner, a relationship Annex president and CEO Mike Fredericks cited when the sale was announced.

Annex Business Media acquired Turf & Recreation magazine in September 2016, in a deal announced on 13 September 2016. Editor Mike Jiggens joined Annex as a full-time staff member at the acquisition, and Crandon remained with the magazine until April 2017 to help with the transition before taking early retirement. Under Annex, the magazine was redesigned — Jiggens introduced the new look in his April–May 2017 editor's column — and integrated into the publisher's portfolio of business-to-business brands, where it sits alongside Annex's landscaping, construction and agriculture titles.

Content and Coverage

Turf & Rec's editorial coverage is organised around the working lives of turf and grounds professionals. Recurring subject areas on its website include agronomy and turf science, golf course management, sports turf, municipal grounds, landscaping and hardscaping, irrigation, equipment and autonomous or battery-powered machinery, snow and ice work, tree care, government affairs and a running health and safety series covering topics from first aid readiness to working safely around heavy equipment.

The magazine mixes practical how-to features — preparing turf in fall for spring growth, calibrating fertilizer spreaders, GPS-guided line painting on sports fields, winterising tractors and mechanical drills — with profiles of the people and properties behind notable Canadian turf. Cover stories and profiles have ranged from a turf student's posting at an organic golf course to the groundskeepers behind major stadium surfaces. Association life is covered closely: Sports Turf Canada, the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association, the Western Canada Turfgrass Association and Landscape Ontario all figure regularly in its news file, along with awards such as the CGSA/Envu superintendent of the year, which the magazine reported in September 2026 for Royal Mayfair Golf Club's Wade Peckham.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by Canada, gave the magazine one of its biggest stories: through 2026 it followed the conversion of BMO Field in Toronto, the natural grass grown for BC Place in Vancouver, the Manitoba seed company behind the turf used at venues in Vancouver and Mexico City, and the team base camp training sites prepared for the tournament. Alongside features, the site carries a daily news file of municipal field projects, course openings and closures, bylaw disputes and product news, plus the magazine's long-running Duffer column.

Audience and Reach

The magazine's readership is the professional turf and grounds maintenance workforce across Canada. Annex Business Media's portfolio description states that Turf & Rec is read by more than 12,000 subscribers from across the country; that figure is the publisher's own claim, presented as such, and no independently audited circulation is asserted here. The portfolio description identifies the audience as landscape contractors, lawn care professionals, golf course superintendents and municipal sports turf and parks managers — the same four groups the magazine itself names as its core demographic.

Because the industry it serves is seasonal, the magazine's editorial calendar tracks the turf year: spring preparation and aeration, summer tournament and playing-season coverage, fall overseeding and winterisation, and snow and ice management through the winter months, with equipment and technology coverage running year-round.

Digital Presence

TurfandRec.com operates as a daily news service for the industry, with new stories posted through the week. Its news archive showed items dated through mid-October 2026 at the time of research for this profile, including features published on 13 October 2026 and news posted on 16 October 2026. The site organises material into features, news, product news, a Weekly Brief digest, webinars and an events calendar, and offers subscription options combining the print magazine with e-news or e-news alone through Annex's subscription service.

The brand also produces audio programming, including Eco Turf: The Podcast and Women in Turf: The Podcast, and runs webinars and on-demand sessions on technology and business topics for turf professionals. Social and newsletter channels round out a digital operation designed to keep a largely outdoor, mobile workforce in touch with industry news between print issues.

Ownership and Organisation

Turf & Rec is published by Annex Business Media, the Simcoe, Ontario-based business-to-business publisher that acquired the title from Turf & Recreation Publishing Inc. in September 2016. Annex is one of Canada's largest B2B media companies, publishing dozens of trade brands across construction, manufacturing, agriculture, landscaping and other sectors. Annex's portfolio listing for the magazine names Anne Beswick as group publisher. The magazine's editor is Mike Jiggens, who edited the title under its previous owner, joined Annex full-time at the 2016 acquisition and continues to write its features and editor's columns.

Before the Annex sale, the magazine was owned and published by Bart Crandon of Delhi, Ontario, who bought it in 1994 from its original Vancouver-based owners and ran it for 22 years. The title's earlier history begins with its 1987 launch in Vancouver.

Contact and Availability

Turf & Rec is available by subscription in print and digital combinations, with magazine-plus-e-news and e-news-only options offered through the subscription links on its website, turfandrec.com. The magazine is published by Annex Business Media, whose head office is in Simcoe, Ontario, and the title's website carries its current subscription, advertising and editorial contact routes. Readers can follow the magazine's daily news file, Weekly Brief, webinars and podcasts through the website, which is updated throughout the week with news from across Canada's turf and grounds maintenance industry.