Editorial Policy

This page describes exactly how content on Loam & Bloom is planned, researched, drafted, and maintained. We publish it because "trust us" isn't an editorial standard — a visible process is.

People first

Every article starts from a specific question a gardener actually asks — "why did my hydrangea stop blooming?" not "hydrangea care guide" — and its only job is to answer that question completely. We don't publish content whose primary purpose is ranking in search results, hitting a word-count target, or covering a trending topic we can't back with a real source.

Research and sourcing

Our primary references are university cooperative extension programs, the USDA, and peer-reviewed or institutionally published horticultural research. Specific factual claims — soil depth, spacing, treatment timing, pest identification — are checked against these sources before publication, and each article lists its key references by name in a "Sources & further reading" section. We don't cite a source we haven't actually checked the claim against.

Gardening carries a large body of traditional practice that hasn't been formally studied. When a guide describes something in that category, we say so directly rather than presenting folk practice as settled research.

How our content is actually produced

We're specific about this rather than vague: articles are drafted with the help of AI writing tools, working from research gathered against the sources described above, and every draft is reviewed for factual accuracy against those sources before it's published. We do not generate articles automatically and publish them unreviewed. We do not claim personal, decades-long growing experience we don't have — where a guide states a fact, that fact traces to a named source, not to anecdote dressed up as authority. We take responsibility for everything published here regardless of how it was drafted: if it's wrong, it's ours to fix.

Corrections

When a reader or our own review finds an error, we correct the article promptly and update its "Updated" date. Substantive corrections are noted directly in the text, not silently edited away. To report an error, use our contact page — this is the single fastest way readers make this site more accurate.

Advertising and independence

Advertising (Google AdSense) funds this site. Advertisers have no influence over what we cover, what we recommend, or how we phrase a recommendation. We don't accept payment for coverage or reviews.

Contact

Questions about our standards, or found a claim that doesn't match its cited source? Emailhello@loamandbloom.shop.