First published 1968, Please Plant This Book, a collection of eight poems printed on eight seed packets placed in a folder, was Brautigan's fourth collection of poetry; his sixth poetry publicaton.

A limited edition of 6,000 copies was published, all for free distribution. This was Brautigan's last independent publishing venture.

Given Brautigan's interest in the presentation of his work in print it seems likely that he had some specific order in mind for the seed packets. Anonymous sources support this contention. There is, however, no definitive information about what that order was to be.

The folder and seed packets were printed by Graham Mackintosh who noted this book as one of the two most imaginative he ever printed.

By imaginative I mean, really, fitting the subject matter, the word, with the format. Like using a good heavy book on marriage techniques to press a wedding flower, or to conceal pornography. With the Brautigan book, poems were printed on actual seed packages and these were then worked into a book. But the essential thing was that the seeds were real—that is, if you planted Shasta daisies you got back Shasta daisies and not carrots—and one had only to plant this book. (Alastair Johnston 89)

Mackintosh included Please Plant This Book as one of seven of "special interest" in a show titled "Fifty Years of Printing by Graham Mackintosh" held at the San Francisco Public Library during August 1968 (Johnston 57-59).

Reports differ regarding who paid for the printing of Please Plant This Book.

Richie Unterberger, author of numerous music books and reviews, says the music group Mad River, "mindful of Brautigan's kindness when they were starving, had used some of their Capitol [Records] advance [against royalties from their second and final album "Paradise Bar and Grill"]" to pay for the printing of this book.

David Biasottti, de facto biographer for Mad River says while some band members do not remember, others feel they used a portion of their revenues from their first successful record album to finance the printing of Please Plant This Book, and helped glue the folders together. ("Just Like a Poem: Richard Brautigan and Mad River." Richard Brautigan: Essays on the Writings and Life. 2006: 48-61)

Sources within the Diggers who wish to remain anonymous say the Diggers financed the printing of Please Plant This Book, helped put it together, and helped distribute copies. One Digger recalls distributing copies at local fire stations.

Another Digger, recalls coalating the book. One possible source of inspiration for the concept and design for this project was the work of beat visual artist Wallace Berman and his magazine Semina, a free-form art and poetry journal that Berman published between 1955 and 1964. Each of the nine issues was printed on a handpress and then hand-assembled by Berman who glued artwork, photographs, small poems and other items inside. Sometimes the enclosed items were loose, laid in between the magazine's pages, or tucked into inside pockets without prescribed order or sequence. Each issue was extremely limited, a few hundred copies, ephemeral although focused on a loose theme, personal, and distributed mostly via the U.S. Mail to a very select group of recipients who were often the contributors as well. As a literary journal, each issue of Semina was a loosely assembled compendium of the most interesting artists and poets of the time, staking out a new cultural context for the evolving literature and art counterculture.

See Semina Culture: Wallace Berman & His Circle. Eds. Michael Duncan and Kristine McKenna. New York: Distributed Art Producers/Santa Monica Museum of Art, 2005. ISBN 193-3045-108.

Another possible inspiration was the Festival of Growing Things, a rock concert held at Mount Tamalpais Outdoor Theater on Saturday and Sunday 1-2 July 1967 featuring most all the major San Francisco bands of the time. Charles Perry says, "free packets of flower seeds were given to all who attended" ( 215), but the promotional poster for the event says simply "Free Seeds." From the background illustration of the poster, one could assume the "free seeds" were marijuana.

VIEW a larger image of the Festival for Growing Things poster.
Santa Barbara, California: Graham Mackintosh, 1968.
Limited Edition: 6,000 copies printed, all for free distribution.
Folder (7" x 6.25" closed) containing eight seed packets.
Printed in sepia ink by Graham Mackintosh.
Folder front cover photographs of Caledonia Jahrmarkt by Bill Brock, a Haight-Ashbury photographer.
Back cover provided publication information.
Two flaps inside the folder held the eight seed packets (four of flowers, four of vegetables).
The front of each packet was printed with a poem titled for the type of seeds contained in that packet. Planting instructions were printed on the back, the same for all eight packets.

A clearly marked facsimile of the first edition is reported. It includes a color copy of the original folder with the poems printed on eight colored packets containing seeds. No date or publisher information is noted.
Flat, never assembled folders, with no seed packets are also reported.

• French
• German
• New Media
• Persian
• Russian

All poems first published here.
Any particular order for the seed packets in unknown.

"California Native Flowers"
In this spring of 1968 with the last
third of the Twentieth Century
traveling like a dream toward its
end, it is the time to plant books,
to pass them into the ground, so that
flowers and vegetables may grow
from these pages.
"Shasta Daisy"
I pray that in thirty-two years
passing that flowers and vegetables
will water the Twenty-First Cent-
ury with their voices telling that
they were once a book turned by
loving hands into life.
"Calendula"
My friends worry and they tell me
About it. They talk of the world
ending, of darkness and disaster.
I always listen gently, and then
say: No, it's not going to end. This
is only the beginning, as this book
is only a beginning.
"Sweet Alyssum Royal Carpet"
I've decided to live in a world where
books are changed into thousands
of gardens with children playing
in the gardens and learning the gen-
tle ways of green growing things.
"Parsley"
I thank the energy, the gods and the
theater of history that brought
us here to this very moment with
this book in our hands, calling
like the future down a green and
starry hill.
"Squash"
The time is right to mix sentences
sentences with dirt and the sun
with punctuation and the rain with
verbs, and for worms to pass
through question marks, and the
stars to shine down on budding
nouns, and the dew to form on
paragraphs.
"Carrots"
I think the spring of 1968 is a good
time to look into our blood and
see where our hearts are flowing
as these flowers and vegetables
will look into their hearts every day
and see the sun reflecting like a
great mirror their desire to live
and be beautiful.
"Lettuce"
The only hope we have is our
children and the seeds we give them
and the gardens we plant together.
Text on back of seed packets reads:

Packed for 1968-1969 season
California Native Flowers:
Plant seed directly in the open where plants are to remain in well prepared soil after all danger of frost is past. In frost-free districts seeds may be planted in the fall. Mix seed with several times its bulk of fine soil and sew broadcast, preferably in an open sunny location. Cover any exposed seed very lightly, not over 1/8 inch and press soil down firmly. When plants are well established thin out to stand 6 inches apart as crowding produces inferior plants. Keep ground moist with fine spray until plants are well up. If allowed to remain, the plants will reseed year after year.