How we test our advice

Gardening advice goes wrong in quiet ways: a number copied from the wrong zone, a date that fits another climate. This is how we keep that out of the guides.

Every number has a page behind it

We write a fact, a date, a depth or a rate only when we have opened a page that says it. University extension offices, botanical gardens, USDA and plant societies come first. Garden blogs and shop pages are leads to follow, never proof. A claim that we cannot find in the source is dropped or reworded to what the source really says.

A second pass before it goes live

Someone who did not write the guide opens the sources again and lists every sentence the page does not support. Each flag is read against the page itself and fixed only when it is confirmed.

When sources disagree

We show the range and say who gives which number, instead of choosing one quietly. Timing is given through what sources do state, such as the last spring frost, because a date for every zone is a date nobody has checked.

Peg's notebook is a data point, not a study

What Peg has seen in her own beds is marked as hers. It can show what happens in one garden in zone 6b; it does not replace a source, and we do not write it as research.

Dates and corrections

The "Updated" date on an article changes only when the substance changes, never for a typo. If you find a mistake, tell us on the contact page and we will check it against the sources and fix the guide.