To those whom I am making a first introduction.
In 2022–23, I conducted a monthly Record Club of the Month, which was a snail mail campaign that led receivers to an online publication. This was based on the old Columbia House racket, with OMNI lurking beneath the surface.
Having enjoyed this online-publication format, and bringing in outside contributors as regulars, I created this current project in 2024: a sort of Better Homes & Gardens morphing into a paranormal Whole Earth Catalog. The idea was that the online dispatches would quickly become a springboard for site-based events, but it felt more appealing to give this project time to ferment awhile.
The publications so far have been given the facade of a dual-45-single audio magazine with a lengthy gatefold/foldout.
For this fall, and eventually next spring
I'm not looking for any cohesion in how contributors treat this project — quite the opposite: I'd like for Botanical Readiness to be a college (in the old sense of the word) of correspondents, that can realign "gardening" and "botany" subjectively. Including matter-of-fact, unadulterated horticulture botanical documentation itself.
My initial inspiration:
Documentation and reflections upon gardening and plantlife excursions. Upcoming garden designs. Research artifacts. Advice and good reads. Things that could legitimately find a home in a genuine gardening magazine, or plant enthusiast publication.
∞
Cryptic and enigmatic artifacts. Pure abstractions, perhaps reframed as astral or occult influences upon gardening. Sci-fi, horror, psychedelia (genres that I tend to lean on, at least, or enjoy using as a lense for gardening matters).
My 2024 notions:
