Horticulturist
Arthur Davidson is a seasoned horticulturist with over five decades of hands-on experience. Holding an A.S. in Horticulture, Arthur’s expertise spans landscape design, organic gardening, soil science, and more.
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Editorial Policy & Publishing Standards
Lawn Chick is committed to creating accurate, useful, and trustworthy content for our readers. As part of this commitment, we’ve taken steps to put a clear and thorough editorial review process in place.
We believe in transparency, and want our readers to know who has written, edited, and reviewed each article we publish.
We also value diversity and want our content to be vetted by a diverse and skilled team of experts, so that when you read an article on LawnChick.com you know that it offers you the very best guidance on that particular subject.
On this page we’ll detail our editorial process and publishing standards so you understand how we write, fact-check, and review content for accuracy.
Content Integrity - Our Promise To You
When you read an article online and need guidance on improving your lawn, garden, or landscape, you deserve to know who is offering you advice and whether it’s advice you can rely on and trust.
Lawn Chick is committed to quality, accuracy, and trustworthiness.
As part of this commitment we’ve expanded our team to include writers, editors, fact-checkers, and a robust “Expert Panel” made up of vetted industry professionals with relevant credentials to review our articles for accuracy.
All of this helps to ensure that each article we publish and/or update is accurate, features up-to-date recommendations and guidance, and (most of all) puts the needs of our readers first.
To this end, you’ll notice that articles on our website now feature an enhanced byline that includes the name of the writer, editor, when the article was last updated (and by whom), and the name and credentials of the expert we’ve asked to review the article for accuracy.
Some articles may also feature additional information at the end of the article to improve transparency about how that content has evolved or changed since it was initially published.
How We Ensure Content Accuracy and Quality
As our readership has grown, Lawn Chick has chosen to take steps to ensure the accuracy of the information we publish.
We see this as the responsibility of every large web publisher, and are committed to only sharing factual advice and accurate information that you can trust.
Part of that trust is built on transparency. You deserve to know who published the content, how it was sourced, written, edited, and updated.
And you also deserve to know that the information in the article you’re reading is true and accurate.
How Our Content is Created
All content on LawnChick.com is original and written by Founder & Owner Sarah Jameson or a member of our editorial team. If Sarah is not the original writer, she carefully reviews and edits the article prior to publication.
We do not, have never, and will never accept or publish guest posts or sponsored posts.
Lawn Chick does not publish articles researched and written by a writer outside of the editorial team’s direct guidance and supervision.
We also do not use generative AI tools to produce any of the content you’ll read on our website.
Our articles are written by humans, for humans (and for the benefit of your grass).
Our Editorial Team
Lawn Chick has a small, but highly skilled editorial team.
Joe, our Managing Editor, has a B.A. in English Literature from Connecticut College and an M.F.A. in English (Creative Writing) from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. He has experience in content marketing at the management level, and has a deep resume with nearly 20 years of experience working as an editor and writer for a wide range of newspapers, literary journals, and digital publications.
Samantha, our Senior Editor, earned both her B.A., and M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Windsor, and has worked as a professional writer and editor for over 10 years.
At Lawn Chick, Samantha works to ensure every article we publish is grammatically correct, free of factual errors, appropriately sourced, and easy to read.
Samantha and Joe work with Sarah and a team of skilled freelance writers to create, edit, and update original, accurate, and helpful articles for LawnChick.com.
Our Expert Review Panel
Lawn Chick invites credentialed, experienced horticulturists, landscapers, and turfgrass specialists to review our articles for errors.
This step is taken to both ensure the accuracy of the content we publish, and also to improve transparency and trust for our readers. Here are a few of our subject-matter experts:
Nicole Forsyth, M.S., is a Certified Landscape Design Professional, Horticulturist, and Arborist. In addition to her role on Lawn Chick’s expert panel, she is a passionate instructor of Plant Science at an agricultural vocational high school. Her expertise in Horticulture, Turf Management, Soil Science and Botany are real assets for us and help ensure our articles are accurate and provide the very best information to readers.
Arthur Davidson, A.S., is a seasoned horticulturist with over five decades of hands-on experience. A former ISA Arborist and Master Gardener, he’s been a guiding light in the horticultural community, sharing his wisdom through talks, seminars, and his blog, Papas Gardens. His expertise in Integrated Pest Management, Soil Science, and Environmental Horticulture make him a valued member of our expert panel.
We hope that this additional review by subject-matter experts allows our website visitors to feel confident that the article they’re reading offers the very best, accurate information.
Two notes about this process that we want to make clear:
- Members of our expert review panel are compensated to lend us their expertise and help us ensure the accuracy of the content we publish. They are paid for their time and subject-matter knowledge, and their compensation is not tied in any way to the results of their evaluation.
- Readers should not consider a notice that an article has been reviewed by an expert on our panel to be an endorsement of any product or service Lawn Chick recommends. Rather, when an article is marked to indicate a member of our expert panel validated it, this only means that he or she reviewed the article for factual inaccuracies based on their experience, training, and expertise, and found the article content to be accurate.
Any articles which do not pass the scrutiny of our expert panel are flagged for internal review and revision, and then re-evaluated by our panel.
If you see a line indicating that an article on our website has been reviewed by an expert for accuracy, this means that the article was found to be free of errors by that expert.
This is what that will look like:
How We Fact Check Articles
We make every effort to correct factual errors in a timely and transparent manner.
Our editorial team members (Samantha and Joe) carefully review each article for accuracy prior to publication, and Sarah has the final review and approval of all articles published on the site.
The review completed by our panel of experts is an additional step we take, above and beyond our internal fact-checking and editorial process, to ensure the accuracy of the information we share and the guidance we provide on LawnChick.com.
We also have taken steps to make it easy for our readers to bring errors to our attention.
If you notice an error, please tell us by:
- posting a comment (we get a lot of spam comments, so we review each comment before approval, but when you submit a comment you can be sure that we will see it),
- using our contact form, or by
- emailing us directly at [email protected].
How We Update Articles
Unlike a book on a shelf at your local library, information published on the web is fluid and constantly evolving to provide the very best information.
As a result, we feel it’s our obligation to disclose when an article was published, but also when it was last updated (and who made that update).
At the very top of each article on our site you will see the publication date and author.
If the article has been updated or checked for accuracy, you’ll see that disclosure next – before the first subheading of the article (so you can’t miss it).
This way when you read an article on LawnChick.com you’ll understand the age of the article, how we’re keeping the content current, and verify that the information is accurate and professionally reviewed.
Sourcing
Sarah Jameson, the website founder and owner, and the editorial team here at Lawn Chick adhere to strong journalistic standards.
All data points, facts and claims are backed up by the personal experience of or research by members of our editorial team.
Beyond leveraging the knowledge this first-hand experience or research provides, we verify claims by ensuring they are confirmed by at least one credible source, two if we have any doubts about them.
When possible we try to rely on primary sources such as expert interviews, professional and academic publications, or from relevant and trusted turf-industry publications.
Our Commitment to Publishing Original Content
At Lawn Chick, our goal is to provide the best, most accurate, content that is unbiased and truly helpful to our readers.
As part of this goal we verify, and check to be sure that the content we publish does not infringe on the copyright or anyone’s intellectual property rights.
The tools on this website (such as our lawn size calculator and grass seed calculator) are original and were created by a developer we hired, paid, and worked with. These assets are owned by LawnChick.com.
All articles published on our website are scanned using a reputable plagiarism scanner, and any suggestion of plagiarism that is brought to our attention is investigated carefully and swiftly addressed.
We expect everyone on our editorial team to be guided by and abide by the following legal and journalistic practices and standards:
About the Media You See on Our Website
Images on LawnChick.com
Images and illustrations in our articles are either sourced internally (by members of our team taking photos, or created by freelance graphic designers we hire).
All other images on the site are licensed from Shutterstock.com.
Videos on LawnChick.com
Videos embedded in and included within our articles are not produced by Lawn Chick, but are included after being reviewed internally.
When we find great video content which would enhance the experience of our readers, we include it as a way to promote and support other creators who are producing helpful, accurate information and guidance that’s relevant to the articles we write.
Readers will sometimes see ads that are displayed as videos on our site as well. You can learn more about these by reading our advertising policy and privacy policy.
Affiliate Advertising and Conflicts of Interest
As you’ll read in our advertising disclosure, and on many of the posts on your site, at Lawn Chick we (just as many web publishers do) participate in affiliate advertising.
What this means is that when we link to or recommend a product or service, we do so through a unique tracking link that allows us to earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you choose to make a purchase.
We never recommend products or services we have not or would not use ourselves, and see these product and service recommendations as a way to help our readers and enhance their experience on our website.
If you’re struggling to kill a certain troublesome weed, for example, we feel it’s helpful to recommend the specific product we’ve had success using for that purpose, and to save you time by linking to the website where you can buy it.
In our buying guides, we do some additional research, and take the time to link to a number of different online retailers, hardware stores, and big box stores that sell our recommended products. This way it’s easy for readers to compare pricing and find the best deal, or choose the retailer where they have had the best experience as a customer:
We take steps to disclose conflicts of interest in a transparent way.
Articles which feature affiliate links will have a disclosure near the top of the article to clearly share with you that the page contains affiliate links:
Our editorial process is to write the article, make the product recommendations, and then add our affiliate tracking code to any links we are able to, after the article is finalized.
In this way we put the reader’s interests first, while also allowing our website to earn the money we need to support our work, and continue to grow.
About Our Brand Partnerships
At Lawn Chick we do have established relationships with brand partners in order to offer our readers exclusive discounts on lawn care equipment, subscriptions, and merchandise.
We make a point to only partner with high-quality brands who make products and offer services that we use and approve of.
We make every good faith effort to disclose these relationships, and take steps to explain conflicts of interest if they exist.
If we recommend a product or service a lot, it’s because we really love that product or service.
Each of these partnerships has grown out of our affinity for what the brand makes or the service they provide. We consider ourselves fortunate to pass savings on to our readers for some of our favorite brands.
How We Avoid Bias & Ensure Neutrality
At Lawn Chick, we strive to avoid bias and maintain neutrality when evaluating products, services, tools, and equipment.
Of course we are (and will always be) guided first and foremost by our personal experience working with and using the products and services we mention and/or recommend.
But beyond this first-hand experience, we take the following steps to ensure that our recommendations are impartial and guided by accuracy:
- Careful Research – We read through all available online reviews, forum threads, and discussions to accurately contextualize our impression of a product or service. If we identify common complaints or issues, we take extra time to evaluate that “problem area” before finalizing our review and evaluation of the product or service.
- Diverse Perspectives – We invite friends, family, and neighbors to try products and services we write about and review. This allows us to get the honest perspective of a diverse group of individuals with a range of experience levels in the lawn care and DIY space. We evaluate and consider this feedback while writing our content so that we are sure to address the concerns of a diverse readership.
- Brand & Manufacturer Outreach – We regularly contact manufacturers directly to ask questions and raise concerns so we can hear for ourselves how the brand and manufacturer is (or is not) addressing these.
- Anonymous Customer Service Evaluations – We periodically call customer service and support lines claiming to have specific issues with a product or service (without disclosing up-front who we are). This allows us to understand how customers are treated and gauge brand responsiveness and support-team quality.
Legal and Compliance Disclaimer
We strive to publish original articles that offer our readers the very best advice and information, but understand that everyone’s circumstances are unique, and that there isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” answer or solution to every problem, question or concern.
It is therefore our advice that readers consult with a professional for specific issues.
It is also your responsibility to research local laws and restrictions when it comes to fertilizer, herbicide, and pesticide use, and to ensure that you safely and properly dispose of any excess product.
If you have questions about a specific product, we always recommend that you contact the manufacturer directly.
You can read our full legal disclaimer here.
How We Accept and Welcome User Engagement and Feedback
Our readers are knowledgeable, engaged homeowners with a wide range of topical knowledge and experience levels.
Sometimes, despite our best intentions we get things wrong and our readers are always happy to let us know about this (hopefully in a polite way).
The best ways to do so are by:
- leaving a comment on the blog post you have thoughts about,
- emailing [email protected], or by
- contacting us through the form on our contact page.
We welcome any and all user feedback, and try to be transparent about praise or criticism by publishing and replying to user comments publicly so that other readers can read them.
Sometimes this feedback results in updates and corrections to our articles (thank you!), and the questions or concerns that are raised by our readers help us understand areas where our content can be improved for other readers.
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