Garden & Gun

Catchy title, isn’t it? To me, it’s a confusing combination of relaxation and terror: like Library & Land Mine, or Beach & Bazooka. But to hundreds of thousands of readers in the USA, Garden & Gun is a leading magazine covering all that is great about the South (of the USA). According to its President & CEO, Garden & Gun “…is a metaphor for the South—its land, the people, their lifestyle, and their heritage.” And their gardens and guns, presumably.

I’ve never read the magazine (having no real connection to the South, nor to gardens or guns), but the website is certainly an interesting and informative place to visit. Since I’m guessing that you probably haven’t read the magazine either, here are some highlights that I found on the Garden & Gun website…

From the Food section, an article entitled Build a Better Hot Dog includes a description of the creative dogs produced at a shop called Frank in Austin, Texas. “…like the Jackalope (antelope, rabbit, and pork sausage with a cranberry compote, Sriracha aioli, and cheddar).” Yes, really.

And, in what I think would be a great title for a sister magazine, the Arts & Culture section features an opinion piece God, Gators, and Gumbo. Uh huh.

There is another cool section called G&G Reader Good Dog Photos, which is pretty much what you would expect it to be – a heap of photos of Good Dogs (split into categories like ‘at play’, ‘on water’, ‘at rest’ and my favourite: ‘dogs being dogs’). Here is the impressive winner of the ‘dogs on water’ category: Fritz – a yellow Labrador retriever from Charleston, South Carolina.

There is a Garden & Gun online store, which has some great things for sale. Also on sale for $300 is “Bird in Hand” – a photo of a man holding a dead bird. Not my cup of tea, but am sure the “Gun” part of the Garden & Gun readership would appreciate the art. The “Wear” section of the store features branded shirts, caps and leashes (for dogs) as well as pocket squares and a women’s shooting vest. And a “Croquet Golf Set”, which sounds intriguing and looks quite fancy.

If you would like to check out the very interesting website of Garden & Gun, it’s here. I’m no fonder of the garden or the gun, but I still like the insight into another world, from this magazine representin’ the South. Yeeeeeee-ha.