Editorial Policies

These Editorial Policies explain how GardenGar creates, reviews, labels, and corrects the journalism and service journalism you read at https://gardengar.com. They apply to staff, contributors, and freelancers who produce editorial content for GardenGar.

Our readers trust us with decisions that affect living plants, pets, property, and sometimes food and health. That trust is the newsroom’s first obligation.

Questions, corrections, and complaints: staff@gardengar.com, with a subject line that names the article.

1. Mission

GardenGar delivers insight on gardening, landscaping, houseplant care, and everything in between. Whether you are trying to save a wilting pothos or planning a spring vegetable garden, we publish expert advice and careful how-tos so you can navigate plant care with more confidence.

We cover practical growing, small-space food production, flowers and houseplants, viral gardening trends (when they are worth your soil and time), pest-control methods, landscaping techniques, and yard-maintenance tools. We write for greenery lovers of every skill level — from a first packet of seeds to a lifelong green thumb.

We believe anyone can grow a garden with the right knowledge. Our job is to make that knowledge accurate, usable, and honest about what we do not know.

2. Independence, Ownership, and Funding

GardenGar is a new digital publication. The Site is currently free to read and is not yet monetized through a named advertising network. As we grow, revenue may come from ordinary advertising, affiliate commissions, and other lawful sources. Readers do not pay a paywall to read standard articles.

Investors, advertisers, and ad networks do not assign, approve, or veto editorial coverage. A brand cannot buy a positive review. Our sales or advertising partners may know that an article exists; they do not write it.

When a commercial relationship could reasonably be seen to affect coverage — affiliate links, gifted products, sponsoreds, or licensing — we disclose it in the article or with standard site labeling, as described below.

Reprint and licensing requests are handled by email at staff@gardengar.com. A license to reprint is not an invitation to alter our meaning.

3. Who Creates Our Coverage

GardenGar articles are written by human writers and overseen by human editors. Bylines identify the writer. Editors are responsible for the published piece.

Our writing and editing teams combine research with real-world plant-care experience. When research is not enough, we consult master gardeners, professional garden designers, landscapers, extension resources, and other qualified experts.

Contributors must disclose conflicts (employment by a seed company, paid consulting for a tool brand, a family nursery, and similar ties) before assignment. We will recuse, disclose, or decline the piece as the conflict requires.

4. Human Authorship — No-AI Writing Policy

All content on GardenGar is written exclusively by human writers. AI-generated articles are not accepted or published.

We believe readers deserve original reporting, analysis, and recommendations from real people with genuine expertise. Every article reflects the knowledge, judgment, and voice of a human writer and the oversight of a human editorial team. That will not change.

Core principles

• Human authorship is required for all published articles. We do not publish or accept content written by generative AI tools from staff, contributors, or freelancers.
  
• Accountability rests with people. A named human writer and a human editor own every piece. Responsibility for accuracy, fairness, and quality belongs to them, never to software.
  
• Expertise you can trust. Reviews and how-tos are based on firsthand experience and reported expertise. We do not automate that perspective.
  
• Honesty with readers. We are clear about how our content is written: people write it.
  

What we do not allow

• AI-written articles, reviews, listicles, buying guides, or other editorial copy drafted by generative AI.
  
• AI-fabricated quotes, sources, statistics, plant names, USDA zones, toxicity claims, or events.
  
• Passing off machine-generated writing as human work. Submissions found to be AI-generated are rejected. Published pieces found to violate this policy are unpublished or rewritten by a human and corrected on the page.
  

Limited, behind-the-scenes tools

Like most modern publishers, writers and editors may use ordinary software that includes automated features: spelling and grammar checkers, analytics dashboards, internal search, transcription of interviews a human conducted, and similar aids. Those tools do not write the article. The words you read are written by a person.

We do not use generative AI to invent garden results we did not observe, to fabricate expert quotes, or to mass-produce search-oriented pages without reporting.

If you have a question about how a piece was created, write to staff@gardengar.com.

5. Accuracy and Fact-Checking

We aim for every article to be accurate at the time of publication. Writers must trace facts to original or otherwise reliable sources. Editors review for sense, sourcing, and safety before publication.

Gardening claims we treat as high-risk — and that therefore need extra checking — include:

• Plant identification and botanical names.
  
• Toxicity to people, pets, or livestock.
  
• Edibility, foraging, and food-safety instructions.
  
• Pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizer rates or mixing instructions.
  
• USDA hardiness zones, frost dates, and invasive-species status.
  
• Legal statements (for example, that a plant is banned in a state).
  
• Medical or veterinary implications of plants or garden chemicals.
  
• Prices, specifications, and “best of” rankings of tools or products.
  

We prefer primary sources: peer-reviewed papers, land-grant extension publications, USDA and equivalent agencies, manufacturer labels, and named experts. We do not treat a viral social post as sufficient sourcing for a safety claim.

When the science is unsettled (for example, some companion-planting pairings or homemade pest sprays), we say so, rather than dressing folklore as fact.

6. Sourcing, Attribution, and Quotations

We link to original sources when they are public. We name experts and, where relevant, their credentials (master gardener, ISA-certified arborist, extension educator, and so on).

Quotations must be accurate in wording and fair in context. We do not rearrange a quote to change its meaning. We may edit for spelling or brevity with an ellipsis when that does not distort.

We do not pay sources for favorable quotes about products. We do not promise coverage in exchange for access.

Anonymous sourcing is rare on a gardening site and is used only when a named source would face a genuine risk and the information is important and independently corroborated. The editor must approve it.

7. Gardening-Specific Standards

Because readers may follow our steps with living plants, soil, water, and tools, GardenGar holds the following extra standards:

Climate and place

We state, when it matters, the climate, zone, or conditions in which a method was tested. We warn that a bucket-garden method, a jasmine variety, or a soil test that works in one region may fail in another. We do not pretend a single calendar of “what to plant in March” fits every hemisphere or elevation.

Safety first

Instructions involving power tools, ladders, electricity in wet locations, or chemicals must include sensible cautions. We never encourage readers to ignore a product label. We do not publish “hacks” that dilute or combine pesticides in ways the label forbids.

Living things and the law

We do not instruct readers to release non-native species, to take plants from protected land, or to ignore local water or burn restrictions. We flag invasive plants rather than casually recommending them.

Photos

Photographs should represent the plant, project, or product honestly. We do not use misleading before-and-after images. Stock photography, when used, must not pretend to be our writer’s garden. AI-generated images are not used as evidence that a plant, pest, or result exists.

8. Product Reviews, Roundups, and Recommendations

When we recommend a tool, soil mix, seed, fertilizer, hose, mower, or houseplant product, the recommendation is an editorial judgment, not an advertisement. We describe who the product is for and who should skip it.

Writers should test or otherwise meaningfully evaluate products they recommend whenever practical. If a roundup is based on reporting, specifications, and expert interviews rather than a full hands-on test, we make that method clear.

We distinguish:

• Editorial reviews and how-tos — independent, even if they contain affiliate links.
  
• Gifted or loaned products — disclosed in the article (“the manufacturer sent this mower for testing”). Acceptance of a sample does not guarantee coverage or a positive result. We keep the sample or return it according to newsroom practice; we do not let a gift buy a verdict.
  
• Sponsored content and advertorials — paid by a marketer, labeled as such, and subject to the advertising section below.
  

Rankings are our opinion at publication. Inventory, pricing, and product revisions change. We are not a laboratory certification body.

9. Advertising, Affiliates, and Sponsored Content

Advertising, when we use it, is how a free gardening site can stay free. It is also how trust is lost if the line with the newsroom blurs. GardenGar maintains that line as follows.

Display and programmatic ads

Third-party ads, when we display them, are labeled as advertising by the ad unit. They are not written or endorsed by our editors. An ad appearing next to an article about tomatoes does not mean we recommend the advertised product. These policies do not name a specific advertising network; if that changes, we will update this page.

Affiliate links

Some articles include affiliate links (for example, to a retailer). If you buy through those links, GardenGar may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Affiliate links never determine whether a product appears in a story or how it is rated. Where a page is substantially affiliate-supported, we disclose that on the page or in a site-wide disclosure.

Sponsored content

Sponsored articles, if we publish them, are clearly labeled “Sponsored,” “Paid content,” or an equivalent. They are distinguishable from newsroom work. The sponsor does not get to rewrite independent reviews. We may decline sponsored work that would mislead gardeners or conflict with safety standards in these policies.

Native advertising and gifts

We do not disguise ads as reported articles. We do not accept payment for a newsroom “best of” ranking. Press trips and samples are disclosed.

10. Conflicts of Interest

Writers and editors avoid conflicts, real or reasonably perceived. A conflict exists when outside interests could interfere with loyal service to the reader.

Examples: owning a competing garden-media brand you are asked to cover; a close relative employed by a tool company in a review roundup; accepting a side payment from a publicist for a mention.

Disclose conflicts to your editor before assignment. Recusal is the default when the conflict cannot be cured by disclosure. Staff may not accept cash, luxury gifts, or ongoing free goods from subjects they cover. Token items of nominal value (a seed packet at a trade show) should still be disclosed if they relate to a story.

Our writers do not use the GardenGar name to extract free products for personal use.

11. Fairness, Voice, and Diversity

We strive to be fair. Gardening is practiced in yards, balconies, community plots, and rented windowsills, in many climates and cultures. Coverage should not assume every reader owns land, a truck, or a full-sun acre.

We seek a mix of writers and experts so that small-space growers, renters, and gardeners outside a single climate are not treated as afterthoughts.

We do not use demeaning stereotypes. We do not invade the private life of a person who is not a public figure merely because they keep a garden. Celebrity gardens are fair coverage when the subject is public; the children and private homes of non-public people are not.

Opinion, humor, and “what I tried in my garden” essays are labeled by voice and byline so readers can tell them apart from reported guides.

12. Corrections and Updates

We correct errors promptly. A misspelled cultivar is not the same as a wrong toxicity warning; both get fixed, and the latter is treated as urgent.

When we correct a significant error, we add a dated note on the article explaining what changed. Typos may be fixed silently. Updates that refresh a guide for a new season (for example, a 2026 tool roundup) are dated so readers can see the work is live.

We do not silently rewrite history to hide a mistake that could have caused a reader to misidentify a plant or misuse a chemical.

If an article is unpublishable even with a correction — for example, it recommended an invasive plant as a carefree groundcover — we may unpublish it and say so if readers are likely to have bookmarked it.

How to request a correction

Email staff@gardengar.com with the article URL, the passage you believe is wrong, and the source that supports the correction (extension bulletin, label, scientific name, and so on). We read these. We may not reply to every message, but we log and investigate specific, sourced complaints.

13. Comments and Community

If comments are enabled, they are a public square, not a second newsroom. Commenters speak for themselves. We may remove comments that are unlawful, abusive, spam, off-topic, or that give dangerous unsourced advice (for example, instructing someone to drink a pesticide).

We do not fact-check every comment. A reader tip in the comments is not a GardenGar recommendation.

14. Licensing, Reuse, and Credits

GardenGar content is copyrighted. Other publications, brands, and creators who want to reprint, excerpt beyond fair use or fair dealing, or reuse our images should email staff@gardengar.com with the subject line “Licensing.”

When we quote or illustrate others’ work, we credit them. We expect the same when others quote us. Do not scrape the Site to train generative models or to republish our guides as your own.

15. Recruitment Integrity

GardenGar takes fraudulent recruitment seriously. Scams impersonating our hiring team occur in this industry. We communicate about jobs only through official channels — email from our domain and official LinkedIn messaging. We never recruit through text message or WhatsApp, and we never ask applicants to buy equipment, pay a fee, or share bank-account passwords.

If you are contacted in our name by a suspicious channel, forward it to staff@gardengar.com and do not send money or documents.

16. Violations Inside the Newsroom

Plagiarism, fabricated sources, undisclosed conflicts, and AI-ghostwritten copy are firing offenses for staff and grounds to end a freelance relationship. We will correct the public record when those failures reach the Site.

17. Changes to These Policies

We may update these Editorial Policies as our newsroom and the law evolve. The “Last updated” date will change when we do. Material changes to the No-AI Writing Policy will remain consistent with our public commitment that people write GardenGar.

18. Contact the Newsroom

GardenGar Editorial

Email: staff@gardengar.com

Website: https://gardengar.com

Corrections: include the article URL.

Licensing: staff@gardengar.com, subject line “Licensing.”