PRIVACY
A simple site.
A simple data footprint.
Last updated October 6, 2026.
Search stays in your browser.
Plant search filters the guide list on this page. Your search words appear in the URL so you can revisit a search. Like other requested URLs, they may appear in hosting access logs.
No growing account is required.
This edition has no user accounts or photo uploads, and does not ask for your address or precise location.
Website analytics.
Google Analytics helps us understand which growing guides people visit. It uses analytics cookies and receives page visits, browser and device information, and connection information that can be used to estimate a general location. We disable advertising signals and ad personalization.
In the European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland, Google Analytics stays off until you turn it on. It also stays off when we cannot determine your region. Elsewhere it is on unless you turn it off. We use the country code supplied by Cloudflare to apply this setting; we do not request your precise location.
We send page addresses without query parameters or fragments, and only the referring website’s origin. When analytics is on, a search event can include the words you type. Read how Google uses data from partner sites.
Your analytics choice.
The preferences panel opens only when you select Analytics preferences in the footer. You can use it at any time to turn analytics on or off. We respect earlier choices to turn analytics off. Turning it off stops Google Analytics measurement on this site and clears its accessible analytics cookies; it does not delete data already received by Google.
Your choice is saved in browser storage for plantcaresteps.com. Permission to turn analytics on lasts 180 days; after that, analytics stays off until you turn it on again. A choice to turn it off stays in effect until you change it or clear the stored choice. Permission saved by the previous version is not treated as fresh explicit consent. If storage is unavailable, your choice works for the current page but may need to be made again on another page. Visits to www.plantcaresteps.com redirect to the main website.
Website hosting and plant photos.
Cloudflare hosts and delivers this website, including its plant photographs. Images are stored with our website and do not load from the original image providers when you browse a guide. Cloudflare may process connection information, such as your IP address and requested URLs, to deliver and protect the site. Read Cloudflare’s privacy policy for more information.
Cookieless performance measurement.
Cloudflare also measures page-loading performance with a separate cookieless beacon. Analytics preferences control Google Analytics, not this Cloudflare beacon.
About Cloudflare Web Analytics.
Advertising.
This release does not display ads. The ads.txt file lists an authorized advertising seller; it does not load ads or advertising cookies. Before enabling ads, we will update this notice and add any required advertising consent controls.
Fonts and external links.
Font files are stored with our website and delivered by Cloudflare. Your browser does not contact Google Fonts to display our text. Clicking a source, photo-credit, or product link takes you to that provider’s site and its privacy terms.
Contact and correction messages.
The contact page prepares an email draft in your browser. Its topic and message are not saved or submitted by this website. If you send the email, your email provider delivers your address, message, and any attachments to us. We use that information to review the report and respond when needed. You can also use this address for privacy questions.
Language preference
When you choose a language, your browser stores that choice locally for this website. The English homepage may offer a link back to your chosen edition. This preference does not redirect you automatically.
Language preference disclosure added October 3, 2026.
Sharing and subscriptions
Sharing buttons send a page link to the service you choose only when you use them. Copy link does not send it to a third party. RSS and JSON Feed do not require an email address; your chosen reader has its own privacy terms.
Email enrollment is available only when the subscription page displays its form. If you enroll, we store your email address, language, frequency and dated consent record in Cloudflare D1. Cloudflare Turnstile checks the request for abuse. Resend delivers confirmation emails and requested gardening updates. We use a short-lived, hashed connection identifier for rate limits and do not use email tracking pixels.
You must confirm your email address before receiving updates. Every update includes preference and unsubscribe links. Unsubscribing removes your plain-text address from the active subscriber record and cancels unsent messages. A keyed address hash is retained to respect suppression; confirmation records are retained for up to one year. Unconfirmed requests expire after seven days, delivery records after 90 days, and signed preference links after 30 days. Use the contact page for data access or deletion requests. Subscription and sharing notice added October 15, 2026.
Community
Accounts and email subscriptions are separate choices in one form. Email is never shown on your public profile. Comments and photos are stored privately until reviewed; edits are reviewed again. Share only photos you own or have permission to share. Removing an account hides its contributions and stops emails unless you explicitly keep your independent subscription.
When these features are enabled, Clerk handles email-code sign-in, Resend delivers subscription emails, and Cloudflare stores account details, comments and photos in access-controlled storage. Uploaded photos are re-encoded with embedded metadata removed before storage; details visible in the image remain. We do not guarantee a specific country or region for data storage.
Helpful votes.
On plant and guide pages, a yes or no vote can be saved with an optional reason and a note of up to 140 characters. We store a hash of the connection’s network address with the page address so the same connection can vote once per page each day. We do not store the address itself, a name, or an account. The note is not published on the page. A percentage is shown only after 20 votes. An operator can export votes from the last seven days.
The planted and “it didn’t make it” reactions on those pages store the same kind of hash, the page address, and the reaction you chose. One reaction is kept for each connection and page. Choosing the other reaction replaces it. The counts are totals, not a list of people. Nothing in that reaction is emailed.
My garden favorites.
Add to my garden stores the plant or guide address, the time you saved it, and an optional note in this browser only. A share link lists those addresses in the URL so another device can restore the same list. The list is not sent to an account. Clearing site data for plantcaresteps.com removes it. The ZIP you type is used in the browser to read the same 2023 zone list as the zone finder. It is not uploaded. A watering reminder file is built in this browser from that saved list and downloaded. It is not emailed and the list is not uploaded to make the file.
Compare and calendar files.
Compare stores up to three plant addresses in this browser. A compare link puts those addresses in the URL so another device can open the same table. The watering reminder is a calendar file created in this browser and downloaded by you. Plant Care Steps does not email that file and does not upload the plant list to build it.