Every guide here is made the same way: research from named sources, plain drafting, a human review before publication, and a dated correction when we get something wrong. This page spells out that process so you can hold the advice to it.
Ava is a pen name: the editorial voice of a site run by one independent publisher, with no borrowed credentials behind it. The About page explains that in full.
Sourcing
We start with Cooperative Extension, not with other gardening blogs. Extension services are the outreach arm of each state’s land-grant university. Their guidance is written for a named region, reviewed by university staff, and revised when the research changes. A blog post is only as good as whoever wrote it, and you usually can’t tell who that was.
Sources we cite by name:
- State Cooperative Extension services, found through the USDA NIFA land-grant directory
- USDA, including the 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map
- NOAA, for frost, freeze and climate normals
- EPA, for anything involving pesticide labels
- The National Center for Home Food Preservation, for anything preserved or canned
- FDA, for food safety questions that reach the kitchen
- ASPCA Animal Poison Control (1-888-426-4435) and Poison Control (1-800-222-1222)
- The USDA APHIS federal noxious weed list and state noxious-weed lists, before we suggest planting anything that spreads
When credible sources disagree, we say so and show both answers. When we can’t find a source we trust, the question stays unanswered. A guide that admits the science is unsettled beats one picking a side to sound decisive.
Measurements and dates
Timings get a zone or a frost date attached, or they don’t get published. “Sow in March” is useless across a country this wide. “Sow four to six weeks before your average last frost” works in Vermont and in Georgia, because you supply the local number.
About that map. USDA released the current Plant Hardiness Zone Map in November 2023, using 1991-2020 weather data processed with Oregon State University’s PRISM Climate Group. It shows one thing: the average annual extreme minimum winter temperature, the coldest night of a typical year. It is not a planting calendar, and it says nothing about summer heat, humidity, rainfall, or the frost pocket at the bottom of your yard.
Frost dates are averages too, from NOAA climate normals, so we give ranges and send you to your county Extension office for local numbers.
What we do not publish
These are permanent limits on scope, not gaps waiting to be filled.
| Topic | Why |
|---|---|
| Pesticide and herbicide doses, dilution and mixing rates | The label is the legally enforceable instruction. Under FIFRA, using a pesticide in a manner inconsistent with its labeling is a federal violation. We say when treatment is worth considering, then send you to the label. |
| Homemade bug-spray recipes | Same reason. A kitchen mix has no tested rate and no data on what it does to plants or bees. |
| Foraging, wild edibles and mushroom identification | Identification from photos and text puts people in the hospital. We don’t attempt it. |
| Plant toxicity as a target topic | A health question, not a gardening one. We’ll state that a plant is toxic to people or pets and link ASPCA or Poison Control. No symptoms, doses or treatment. |
| Medicinal and herbal-remedy claims | Health claims need clinical evidence and a clinician. Growing a plant and treating an illness with it are different subjects. |
| Cannabis | Legal status varies by state and conflicts with federal law. Out of scope. |
| Home canning method instructions | Processing times, pressures and acidity are botulism-prevention science. We link NCHFP and USDA rather than restate them. |
If you think someone has eaten something harmful, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222. For a pet, call ASPCA Animal Poison Control at 1-888-426-4435, where a consultation fee may apply.
Use of AI
AI tools are part of how this site is produced. Rather than make drafting claims no reader could verify, here is the standard the publisher commits to:
- AI assists with gathering sources, drafting and editing. It never has the last word.
- A human reviews every page before publication, checks each claim against the sources named above, and is accountable for what goes out. An error here is the publisher’s error, not a tool’s.
- Anything a source can’t support is cut rather than hedged.
- AI-generated images are illustrations and are labeled as such. They’re not photographs of a real plant or a real result, and never evidence that a method worked.
- No invented author. Ava is a disclosed pen name with no fabricated biography, no portrait presented as a real person, and no credentials the publisher doesn’t hold.
Corrections
Email hello@avagardentips.com with the page address and what’s wrong. A source pointing the other way speeds things up. We aim to acknowledge every report within five business days.
Substantive fixes get a note. If a temperature, a timing, a plant name or a safety instruction was wrong, the page is corrected and a dated line at the bottom says what changed. We don’t edit quietly and hope nobody kept a screenshot. Typos and broken links are fixed without a note.
Reviews and updates
Pages carry a last-reviewed date. This policy was last reviewed on August 25, 2026.
Seasonal content is reviewed once a year, ahead of the season it covers: sowing windows, frost timing, pruning months, overwintering. Anything citing a federal or Extension source is re-checked when that source changes.
A review that changes nothing still updates the date, so you can tell “checked and still correct” from “nobody has looked since 2026”.
Independence
The site is free to read, and display advertising is what pays for it. Ads are served programmatically, so we don’t choose the advertisers and they don’t choose the content they land beside.
No advertiser, sponsor or brand reviews, approves or influences a guide before it publishes. We don’t sell links, paid guest posts or paid mentions. If affiliate links are ever used, they’ll be disclosed on the page carrying them, and no recommendation will depend on whether a link pays.
Questions or corrections: hello@avagardentips.com.