These Terms of Use govern access to KnowTheYard. They set practical boundaries for informational content, safe use, intellectual property, external services, commercial relationships, availability, and responsibility.
Acceptance and who may use the site
By accessing or using KnowTheYard, you agree to these terms and the policies linked from them. If you do not agree, do not use the site.
If you use the site for an organization, you represent that you have authority to act for it.
You are responsible for using the site in a way permitted where you live, and for supervising use by anyone under your care.
Reader Responsibility
KnowTheYard provides general educational information. Plants and yards respond to local climate, weather, soil, construction, water, history, product choice, and the accuracy of identification.
A webpage cannot inspect roots, test tissue, locate utilities, assess a tree, confirm a poisonous or edible plant, or observe the complete situation.
You remain responsible for checking that an action fits your plant and property. Examples, calendars, zone references, calculators, and comparisons are decision aids, not guarantees of survival, yield, bloom, safety, legality, or a particular result.
Plant, Product, and Safety Checks
- Confirm plant identity before ingestion, treatment, propagation, or handling when toxicity is possible.
- Read and follow the current product label, protective-equipment directions, and permitted site and dose.
- Check local water, fire, invasive-species, planting, disposal, wildlife, and pesticide rules.
- Contact utility-location services before digging and qualified help for structural trees, power lines, slopes, or hazardous equipment.
- Seek emergency, medical, poison-control, veterinary, or other appropriate help instead of waiting for a website reply.
Acceptable Use
You may browse, link to, and use the site for personal informational purposes. Do not introduce malicious code, probe or bypass access controls, overload the service, interfere with another visitor, scrape in a way that impairs operation, falsely imply affiliation, remove notices, use content for unlawful activity, or collect personal information from the site without a lawful basis.
Reasonable search indexing and ordinary accessibility tools are welcome. Automated access that causes operational harm or republishes substantial content is not.
We may limit traffic, block misuse, or preserve evidence of abuse.
Content and intellectual property
KnowTheYard’s original writing, editing, organization, graphics, branding, interfaces, and code are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws. You may quote a limited portion with clear attribution and a link when the law permits.
Copying a full article, republishing a database, removing attribution, selling our content, or using the brand to imply endorsement requires permission unless a legal exception applies.
Names, facts, public-domain material, and third-party assets retain the rights that apply to them. If you believe material on the site infringes your rights, use the terms contact route and identify the work, location, basis of the claim, and a reliable way to reach you.
Links and external services
The site may link to extension offices, government resources, botanical institutions, retailers, manufacturers, maps, videos, or other services.
A link can provide evidence, context, or a convenient next step. It does not mean KnowTheYard controls or endorses everything on that destination.
External content, availability, pricing, safety, accessibility, and policies can change without notice to us.
Your interaction or purchase is between you and the external provider under its terms. Inspect the destination and current product information before relying on it.
Advertising, Affiliate Links, and Sponsored Content
Commercial features may be introduced, removed, or disabled. When an affiliate link, advertisement, sponsorship, free product, or other material connection applies, we aim to disclose it clearly enough for a reader to understand before acting.
Such a relationship does not guarantee a positive conclusion, and it does not let a commercial party control our evidence or corrections.
Read the Advertising and Affiliate Disclosure for current status and standard labels. Prices, availability, seller claims, warranties, and return terms belong to the seller and may change.
Availability and site changes
We may add, revise, reorganize, suspend, or remove content and features. Maintenance, security work, provider failure, traffic, network conditions, or events outside our control may interrupt access.
We do not promise that every page, link, tool, saved preference, or prior version will remain available.
Disclaimers and Limits on Liability
To the extent permitted by applicable law, the site and content are provided as available and without warranties that they are complete, current, error-free, uninterrupted, or suitable for every plant, property, climate, person, or purpose.
To the extent allowed by applicable law, KnowTheYard is not responsible for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or similar losses arising from use of or inability to use the site, external services, or decisions made from general information. Nothing in these terms excludes rights or responsibilities that cannot legally be excluded.
Your best protection is to verify plant identity, inspect local conditions, follow controlling labels and rules, and seek qualified local help where a web guide cannot assess the risk.
Changes, waiver, and severability
We may revise these terms when the site or applicable requirements change. The updated date identifies the current version, and continued use after publication means the current terms govern that use.
If a provision cannot be enforced, it will be limited or removed only as much as necessary. The remaining provisions continue in force.
A delay in enforcing a provision does not automatically waive it.
Questions and permissions
Email [email protected] and use the subject line “Terms question”. Quote the relevant section and explain the page, material, planned use, audience, distribution, and whether the use is commercial.
Do not send confidential material merely to ask whether a use is permitted.
User submissions and suggestions
If you send a correction, gardening observation, idea, or source, you retain the rights you already hold in your original material. You give KnowTheYard permission to read, evaluate, and use the submission to respond, improve the site, investigate a claim, or maintain an operational record.
Do not submit confidential material, another person’s private information, or content you lack permission to share.
Sending an idea does not create employment, authorship, partnership, payment, or an obligation to publish. If we want to reproduce substantial original material with attribution, licensing terms can be agreed separately.
Section headings help navigation, but they do not limit the meaning of the text beneath them. The Privacy Policy and Disclosure are incorporated where these terms refer to data handling and commercial relationships.
Where a narrow page notice conflicts with a general statement, read the notice closest to that specific feature or relationship together with the current policy.