Yes, you read that correctly, it’s called Garden & Gun. When the name first surfaced, this magazine quickly became the butt of many jokes, but I have to tell you – it’s pretty darn good.
The basic idea behind this publication, the first for a new magazine division of the venerable Evening Post Company, is a celebration of the sporting lifestyle and cultural heritage of the “21st Century Southern America.”
With a feeling somewhere along the lines of Town & Country, it is more garden than gun. The fall issue offers a hunt-country fashion spread at the decidedly elegant Greenbrier, an intriguing article on Louisiana marsh fishing, a travelogue of Memphis, TN – including the Peabody Hotel’s famous duck walk – and my favorite, a spread on the opening day of the famed Belle Meade hunt. It’s not a traditional hunt by the way, no foxes are harmed. Read about a garden tour on Roanoke Island, the living legends of jazz, and an interview with Andrea Nutt, a talented young classical painter now living in Puerto Rico.
Though not a “style” magazine per se, it is very much a lifestyle magazine devoted to the romantic hunt clubby-ness of the South. In many ways I felt I was reading about the English landed gentry, just a more humid climate. But with ads touting secluded custom built estates, complete with yacht clubs and golf courses, Hickory Chair furniture and upscale hunt country outfitters, this is magazine is clearly targeted to the aspirational estate owner who likes sporting clays.
Overall, it’s an interesting magazine that I will keep an eye on; not too hard as the photography and layout are extremely well done. You know, I’m suddenly in the mood to visit Charleston again.