Trust and methodology
Show the reasoning. Mark the uncertainty. Review what can change.
Gardening guidance depends on location, weather, soil, cultivar, and the condition of an individual plant. Our standards are designed around that reality.
Source policy
We prioritize university extension programs, government agriculture and environment agencies, botanical institutions, and current product labels for safety-critical claims. General technique is separated from region-specific guidance.
Review policy
Plant profiles and guides display a review date. Time-sensitive pest, product, climate, and regulatory information should be checked again before use.
Corrections
Material errors should be corrected in place, with the affected guidance reviewed for related problems. A public correction channel will be added before accepting outside submissions.
AI-assisted work
Ask Gardening.how retrieves a small set of relevant Gardening.how records for each question, filters citations to those supplied records, and presents generated answers as practical guidance rather than evidence. Ordinary text questions may use the approved Azure fallback after both local routes fail; garden photos remain on the verified local route only. Photo markers are approximate visual focus areas, not pixel-precise instructions.
Safety
Photo help is observational and provisional, not definitive diagnosis, pesticide prescription, food-safety determination, toxicity determination, or edibility identification. Pesticide, fertilizer, toxicity, food-safety, and invasive-species decisions require current labels and local guidance.
Foundational references
Research framework reviewed for this release
These sources establish the site’s source hierarchy, timing limits, and pesticide-safety rules. Crop-specific and local guidance still takes priority.
Published and last reviewed: July 20, 2026