Garden & Gun Magazine – Blowing holes in the rose bush of logic
In my head, there are just a few things that I don’t think should go together. Pickles and ice cream, snow and my life, Paris Hilton and the front page of the newspaper are a few examples. But as pregnant women, my husband and major media outlets can attest to, what I think and what actual happens are two very different things.
Nevertheless, when I tripped across a reference for an award for a “hot†new magazine called Garden & Gun, my logic meter failed to restart.
Garden and Gun.
Garden and Gun.
Sorry, just trying to get the logic meter to restart.
While I have said that I fully intend to go hunting, these are really not two topics that I would think normally go together, unless their intention is to continuously publish stories about deer, squirrels and rabbits and managing them in your garden.
Their website says that this is a magazine that embodies the essence of “21st Century Southern Americaâ€. Really?!? What is it you people do down South? Topiaries of Uzis? I can see the articles now, “Getting a Bang out of Making Bean Pole Tepees from Unused Shotguns”.
I alternately have visions of a 65-year-old elegant southern belle grandma stalking rabbits in her back yard with a double barrel shotgun while wearing camo gardening gloves and apron to a redneck good ol’ boy with missing teeth pruning a rose bush with shots from a .22 (for the light pruning, of course).
Now, I am sure that this is not the case. Probably the target audience is a genteel gentleman who tends dahlias and participates in quail hunts. But the words Garden and Gun seemingly should not go together. I want to know what night of drinking lead to even imagining that there was an audience for this?
I have yet to read the magazine (but if you work there, feel to send me one), but I have to say that just the title may cause me to see if I can find a copy at the local Borders bookstore. Maybe there will be some good tips to help with ridding my garden of those damn deer.
By the way, I am not the only garden blogger perplexed by this:
After the raccoons ravaged my pond, eating fish and ripping up the plants, I began to think that maybe gardens and guns DO go together. A couple of weeks later I attended an Austin Pond Society meeting and sat next to a very elegant woman of middle years. We began talking about pond pests. She recollected that she once had a problem with owls picking off huge koi that she had had for years. “What did you do?” I asked. In her quiet East Texas accent she answered, “I lay on my belly inside my back door and when they attacked the pond again I shot ’em.”
So there you have it…the Texas solution. (I forgot to ask if she knows Dick Cheney.)
In the South, it is not unusual to find many examples of how people combine their different loves. “Walt’s Antiques and Bait Shop,” “Lula’s Hair Designs and Bait Shop,” “Gourmet Sandwiches and Bait Shop.” Wait. Maybe it’s just the bait shop part that gets combined with everything.
This is the first I have heard of this wacky magazine. I’m fascinated by the supermodels on the cover. I don’t see many of those folks lined up at the ammo counter at the local Wal-Mart.
–Robin (Bumblebee)
Hanna, this is another of your true gems of writing. Priceless! And yes, the mind truly boggles over this title. I think I’ll just contemplate it a little bit longer…and wish I was a cartoonist, because your imagery is hysterically funny.
Hehehe! Guns and Girls, Guns and Ammo, guns and Garden Pests, maybe, but Gardens and Guns?!?!?!?!
Ah, I see its some high class mag for those with lots of money. It’s seems really wierd to me though.
Garden and Gun offered a promotional subscription for $10.00 back in the spring and I subscribed. Yes, the title is unbelievably bad (in my not so sought after opinion) and the whole premise of the magazine is weird for anyone outside the southern states I think. That said, there have been some well written articles in the magazine although the appeal is very limited for me. Very little on gardens and not so much on guns either but more of a refined, genteel gentlemen’s magazine with a bit of fashion thrown in. The photography is beautiful but I really don’t get it but then I don’t get Vogue either!
mss – I am all for the Texas solution.
Robin (Bumblebee) – So this should be Garden, Gun & Bait? 😉
jodi – Thanks… I just report what I am thinking. The world is a funny place.
Cathy – Looking at the images on the site (as Robin pointed out) I am begining to think that Garden & Gun is a euphanisim for Guns & Girls.
Cathy – I got the same impression, which is why I would think they would come up with a better title.
Layanee – Please, give your opinion. I am glad to hear it. So not for Garden or Gun lovers, eh? How odd. Eye candy for the Southern Gentalmen.
I remember when this magazine came out – at that point I had read a bit about the creators using the name of a now defunct club that shared the same name. The magazine was supposed to be about lifestyle – not specifically about gardens or guns. But there is just such a huge disconnect between the title and the intended content. I think most people feel they missed the mark in making the connection…
Not to offend anyone here but all I have to say is
“Only In America???”
I really hope there is no such “beast” published in Canada … sigh !
Joy
PS … loved your comments though ! Good One ! hahaha
Great post Hannah. My wife and I had the same thoughts and discussion when we came across this magazine at our Dentist’s office. It is a strange combination. I thumbed through it and there was some good gardening content but there were also articles that didn’t interest me. It wasn’t long before I put it down and opted for Better Homes & Gardens instead.
Your post is just too funny. I thought many of the same things when I saw the magazine was available. Guns just don’t appeal to me unless they are all polished and tucked away in a safe never used.
This boggles my mind … although it doesn’t seem to take much to do that these days. Good post …
hmmm. as a fairly genteel southerner, with a just as genteel southern gentleman husband, i’d just like to throw the fact out there that the magazine doesn’t reflect the “southern” mentality. I don’t know that state lines really affect who carries an NRA membership and who appreciates an heirloom tomato.
just a thought from a woman with a no guns, not even air guns, in this peace loving North Carolina home rule.
My wife first saw Garden & Gun at the Vet’s office…. She loved it and finally found a copy at B&N. I ordered a subscription for Christmas and have tried to get any back issues. There are NONE available including the December Holiday run of 150,000…YES 150,000!!!! Me thinks that this magazine will be a home run for the publisher.
Well it’s getting a lot of publicity at any rate. However, I managed to somehow miss this bute before stumbling across this blog (great blog btw). I like the touch of the guy helping the girl aim… cough, sputter… Perhaps, hunting and gardening would be more interesting to many of us self sufficiency types but then I live in the deep north not the deep south.
I just saw this magazine for the first time in Tallahassee, Florida on the living room floor of the lodge on a gentleman’s farm where my friend lives. I laughed when I saw it but pretty soon was engrossed in the interesting articles and beautiful photography. It is not my lifestyle, but I liked having a glimpse of what some wealthy Southerners do for fun and family time. The entertainment value of the ads alone were worth the cost of the magazine. I figure it must be aimed at couples, something for each of them and a place to come together and share conversations about gardening and sport hunting.
Garden & Gun. Think about it, Hanna, dear. No, harder. There: the title is a euphemism for male and female anatomy. Garden=vagina, penis=gun. Got it? Okay, next problem.
I just saw this magazine for the first time yesterday. As a Californian living (well, existing) in Alabama, if it was produced here they would call it Garden, Gun, and Football. It is, indeed, so “southern” and I believe the story that it was named after some old club.
Well, I to agree there is a disconnect between the title and content… but I dont really care about that…
I just know it sells well.. in my online store and that is all that matters to me… as a single mom, caring for a gaggle of angle huggers…
I did love the story about the “Texas Solution” I have rid myself of many a vermin in that fashion, works wonders on hard of hearing men too…
Sandra
I have given subscriptions to two people, they and I have not received a magazine forever……one subscription went to Heather Abernathy frm me and the other to Peter La Motte…..Peter received one issue, Heather didn’t receive any…what gives…….you have a terrific magazine but your pr isn’t good at all.