How we decide what to publish, how we check it, and what we do when we get something wrong.
Advice with numbers attached
“Water deeply” is not advice. How many inches, how often, in which zone — that is advice. Wherever a recommendation can carry a figure, it carries one: a quantity, a temperature, a spacing, a dollar amount, a month. If we can’t put a number on it, we say why.
We say when it depends
A great deal of home and garden advice is regional, and writing that ignores this is worse than useless — it is confidently wrong for most of the people reading it. When the answer changes by climate zone, state law, local code or utility program, we say so, and we point you to the authority that decides it in your area.
Where our facts come from
For anything technical or regulatory we work from primary sources: cooperative extension services and land-grant universities, the relevant federal and state agencies, published model codes, and manufacturers’ own documentation. When a claim rests on a specific study or program, we link to it so you can read the original rather than take our word for it.
No invented experience
We do not write first-person anecdotes that did not happen. You will not read “I tested this for six months” on this site unless someone did. Where a piece reflects hands-on experience, it says whose. Where it is a synthesis of published guidance, it reads as one.
Corrections
We correct errors rather than quietly deleting them. A correction that changes the substance of a piece is noted on the page. If you find something wrong — a figure, a rule that has changed, guidance that doesn’t hold in your region — tell us. Reader corrections are one of the most useful things we get.
Updating, not republishing
Rebate programs expire, products get discontinued, code cycles turn over. Reference pieces carry the date they were last reviewed, and we go back to the ones that matter rather than letting them drift.
Advertising and independence
Advertising on this site is sold and served separately from the newsroom. Advertisers do not review articles before publication, cannot commission coverage, and do not decide what we recommend. Where a piece contains affiliate links, that is disclosed on the page — see our affiliate disclosure.