Cookie Policy

This Cookie Policy explains how The Tended Garden uses cookies and similar tracking technologies when you visit our site to read about vegetable beds, flower borders, indoor plants, or ideas like our guides on side yard landscaping and stair railing plant hangers. It should be read alongside our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, which together explain how we handle your data and your relationship with this site.

What Are Cookies? Cookies are small text files that a website stores on your computer, phone, or tablet when you visit. They help the site remember your preferences, understand how visitors use the pages, and, in some cases, support advertising. Cookies do not harm your device and cannot access files stored elsewhere on it.

Why We Use Cookies

Like most content websites, The Tended Garden uses cookies to keep the site running smoothly, to learn which articles — whether a beginner vegetable guide or a garden design roundup — are genuinely useful to readers, and to occasionally support the affiliate links and advertising that help fund our work. We try to keep cookie use as minimal as reasonably possible while still delivering a functional, well-maintained site.

Types of Cookies We Use

Essential Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function properly. They allow basic features like page navigation, secure browsing, and access to certain areas of the site. Without these cookies, some parts of The Tended Garden may not work as intended. Because they are strictly necessary, essential cookies cannot be switched off through our own settings, though you can still block them via your browser.

Preference Cookies

Preference cookies remember choices you make while browsing — such as font size, region, or display settings — so you do not have to reset them on every visit. These make repeat visits smoother, especially if you regularly come back to reference our plant care tips or design ideas.

Analytics Cookies

We use analytics cookies to understand how visitors interact with our content — which pages are popular, how long people stay, and where visitors come from. This information is typically aggregated and anonymized, and it helps us decide what topics to expand, whether that means more indoor plant guides or additional garden design inspiration.

Marketing and Affiliate Cookies

Some pages on The Tended Garden include affiliate links to gardening tools, plants, or supplies. Marketing and affiliate cookies help track referrals so that partner retailers know a visit or purchase came from our site. These cookies may also be used by advertising networks to show relevant ads. For more detail on how affiliate relationships work on this site, please see our Affiliate Disclaimer and Disclosure pages.

Third-Party Cookies

Certain features on our site, such as embedded videos, social sharing buttons, or Pinterest-style save buttons, may set their own cookies through third-party services. We do not control these cookies directly, and we encourage you to review the privacy policies of those third parties for more information. If you save or share content from our site through Pinterest, our Pinterest Disclaimer explains how that platform may handle related data separately from us.

Consent and Your Choices

When you first visit The Tended Garden, you may see a notice asking for your consent to non-essential cookies. You can accept all cookies, adjust your preferences, or decline optional categories. Your choice is generally remembered for future visits unless you clear your browser data or update your settings.

Managing or Disabling Cookies

Most browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can typically choose to:

• Block all cookies from being set
• Delete existing cookies after each session
• Allow cookies only from specific sites
• Receive a notification whenever a new cookie is set

Keep in mind that disabling certain cookies, particularly essential ones, may affect how well parts of the site function. Since browser settings vary, we recommend checking your browser's help section for step-by-step instructions specific to the software and device you use.

How Long Cookies Last

Some cookies are session-based and are automatically deleted once you close your browser. Others are persistent and remain on your device for a set period, ranging from a few days to a couple of years, depending on their purpose. Analytics and marketing cookies are typically retained longer than simple preference cookies, but none are kept indefinitely without a defined expiration.

Updates to This Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in technology, regulation, or the tools we use across the site. Any updates will be posted on this page, and we encourage you to check back periodically. Significant changes will generally be reflected by an updated revision date at the top of this document once applicable.

Related Policies

For a fuller picture of how The Tended Garden operates, you may also want to review our Editorial Policy, our Disclaimer, and our Community Guidelines, which together outline how we create content, disclose relationships, and interact with readers.

Questions About Cookies

If you have questions about this Cookie Policy or how cookies are used on our site, feel free to reach out through our Contact page or email us directly at [email protected]. You can also learn more about who we are on our About Us page.