Editorial standards

How we research and check every page

Native Garden Guide is only useful if the details are right: how tall a plant gets, whether it takes shade, when to prune it. This page explains where those details come from and what has to be true before a page goes live.

Where the facts come from

We work from published botanical and extension sources, not from other gardening blogs.

• USDA PLANTS Database: Scientific names, USDA symbols and native range. Every plant page links to its USDA profile.
• Native Plant Society of Texas species profiles: Texas ecoregions, habitat, propagation, wildlife and larval-host records.
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (UT Austin): Growing conditions and the answers in its Mr. Smarty Plants archive.
• Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and Texas A&M Forest Service: Turf and lawn guidance, planting seasons, and the regional invasive plant lists.
• NC State Extension Plant Toolbox: Toxicity, edibility and pest notes for species that also grow outside Texas.
• Central Texas Gardener (KLRU): Practical care notes from Central Texas gardens.

Each plant guide lists the specific pages it was checked against in its Sources section, so you can read the original yourself.

Rules every page follows

• No invented numbers. Heights, spreads, USDA zones and bloom months come from one species record that every page on the site reads from. If a guide and that record disagree, the page doesn't ship until the difference is resolved.
• When sources disagree, we say so. For example, extension services disagree on whether horseherb is edible, and the horseherb guide says exactly that instead of picking a side.
• Texas first. "Native" means native to Texas. Each guide names the Texas ecoregions where the plant grows wild and says where it struggles.
• Thin pages stay out of search. Species that don't have a full guide yet are kept out of Google's index until one is written. A short data card isn't worth your click from a search result.
• Dated. Every guide shows the date it was last updated.

How the writing is done

Native Garden Guide is an independent, one-person project. Drafts are written with the help of AI tools, then checked line by line against the sources above before publishing. We cut anything a source doesn't support, and check every figure against the species record. Nursery-propagated plants only: we never recommend digging plants from the wild.

Money and independence

No nursery, seed company or brand pays to be listed or recommended here, and the site has no affiliate links. The "Where to buy" notes on plant pages are general pointers, not paid placements.

Corrections

If you find a mistake, a plant that's wrong for your part of Texas, or a care tip that didn't work in your yard, we want to know. When a correction changes a page, the Updated date on that page changes with it. A contact form is coming soon.

Photos are Creative Commons images from iNaturalist contributors; see the photo credits. More about the project on the About page.