This page explains the garden’s own words: how developed a note is, how I know what it claims, and what the Thorny label means. Each note links here from its labels.
Maturity stages
Every note in this garden says how developed it is. That is its maturity stage: Seed, Bud, Bloom, or Perennial. A stage describes the note, not the topic. It is separate from how I know what I claim: a Bloom can rest on thin evidence, and a Bud can rest on years of experience.
Stages move by hand. When I think a note has met the bar for the next one, I change its stage and add a dated promotion entry to its tending log, so every promotion is recorded. Nothing promotes itself.
Seed
The earliest stage. A rough thought, captured before I lose it. A Seed needs nothing: no source, no polish, no stated basis. It can be wrong, short, or half-formed, and it is public anyway, because the garden shows its rough edges. Read a Seed as a note to myself that I happened to leave open.
Bud
A Seed that has started to connect. To be a Bud a note needs:
- an epistemic status (basis and one sentence)
- a link to another note
So a Bud says how I know what it claims and sits inside the garden rather than alone. It is still growing, and I may change it a lot as my understanding grows.
Bloom
A note I have checked and grounded. To be a Bloom a note needs:
- a link to a source note
- a reread at least 3 days after first planted
The source note shows where the knowledge came from (a teacher, a book, a community, or my own experience), and the reread is me coming back with fresh eyes. A Bloom can still be corrected. Thorny notes cannot be public below this stage.
Perennial
The most settled stage. To be a Perennial a note needs:
- 3 months as a bloom (per a promotion entry in the tending log)
- no correction entry since promotion to bloom
It means the note has stood for a season without me having to fix it. It does not mean it is final or true for everyone, only that it has held up for me.
Epistemic status
Every note that is more than a Seed says how I know what it claims. That is its epistemic status: a basis, plus one sentence of detail. It is separate from the maturity stage, which says how developed the note is. A Bloom can have a thin basis, and a Bud can have years behind it.
The basis is one of five words. Pick the one that is most honest, not the most impressive.
Lived
I have done or experienced this myself. I use this for what I learned in my own practice: what worked for me, what went wrong, what I would do differently. My experience is just one person’s, so it does not make a claim general.
Taught
Someone with experience showed or told me this directly: a mentor, a class, a more experienced partner. I use it when the knowledge came from a person I could ask, and name them in a source note by role, never by a private name.
Read
I learned this from a book or other writing. I use this when I know a claim from a text rather than from doing it. I may not have tried it, and the source note links to what I read.
Community
I picked this up from other people in the scene: conversations, workshops, a local munch. I use it for shared practice and norms that nobody in particular taught me and nobody wrote down.
Speculation
My guess, not something I have checked. I use it for hunches, open questions, and ideas I am still testing. It is the most honest basis for a thought I cannot back up yet, and the one most worth reading with a raised eyebrow.
Thorny
A note is Thorny when its topic carries significant physical or psychological risk. Really anything where a mistake can harm someone and or the effects are long-lasting. A Thorny note shows a label at the top so you know before you read it.
This garden is not safety or medical advice. I am merely a kinkster, not an authority. A Thorny note is one person’s experience held to a higher standard, and it is a place to start asking questions, not a replacement for training, a knowledgeable teacher, or a medical professional.
The higher bar
A Thorny note cannot be public below Bloom. A half-formed note about something that can harm someone does not get published as a Seed or a Bud; I keep it unpublished until it has earned its place.
A Thorny Bloom also needs a linked source whose kind is not experience: a teacher, a book, or a community, not only my own practice. Advice about risk needs grounding outside one person.
What to do with it
- Read a Thorny note as a starting point, then check it against people with real training.
- Treat my epistemic status on it as part of the warning, and notice when it says lived or speculation.
- Do not try something that carries physical risk alone, and do not skip your own risk profile just because a note sounded sure.