Terms of Use

1. No Professional Advice

The Site provides educational and informational resources only. Nothing on it constitutes professional horticultural advice, agricultural advice, legal advice, or a substitute for the judgment of a qualified local professional. Gardening decisions carry real consequences — crop loss, plant death, soil damage, wasted expenditure, and in the case of pesticide use potential harm to health and to the environment — and those consequences remain yours.

Guidance on this Site reflects broadly published cooperative extension and university recommendations. It is general by construction: it cannot see your soil, your drainage, your microclimate, your water quality, your local pest pressure, or your site history. Where a decision depends on local conditions, the correct authority is your county extension office, a soil test, or a licensed professional — not a website.

2. Accuracy and Reliance

We work to a sourcing rule rather than an accuracy promise. Hardiness zones follow the 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; frost dates are typical 30-year normals published by state cooperative extension services; spacing, days-to-harvest, and nutrition figures come from published extension and reference material. Where a figure cannot be verified, the page says so rather than substituting an estimate.

Even so, every one of these figures is an average or a typical value, and averages hide the years and the sites that cause trouble. A typical last spring frost is a midpoint: in approximately half of years the last frost arrives later. A hardiness zone describes a typical winter minimum, and an exceptional cold event can still kill a plant rated for that zone. Local variation within a single ZIP code — a frost pocket, a south-facing wall, a raised bed, a shaded courtyard — can amount to a meaningful fraction of a zone. For those reasons the Site is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, and you rely on any figure at your own risk.

If you find an error, send us the page link and the source that contradicts it. We correct against sources, not against requests.

3. Pesticides, Fertilizers and Regulated Products

Nothing on this Site is a pesticide recommendation, a label substitute, or advice on lawful use. The label on the product you buy is the only version of the instruction that governs your use, and it is a legal document. Before applying anything, confirm that the product is labelled for the crop, the pest, and the site; that it is permitted where you live; and that you are applying it at the correct growth stage and in the correct conditions.

Several active ingredients are restricted or prohibited for home use in particular states or municipalities, and fertilizer applications — especially phosphorus on lawns — are regulated in many jurisdictions. Restrictions change. Confirm the current rule with your state or local authority before you apply, and never mix products unless both labels permit the combination.

4. Acceptable Use

You may read, print, and share the Site for personal, non-commercial use, including printing the worksheets, checklists, and plans for your own garden or for a group you are teaching or leading. You agree not to scrape the Site at a volume that degrades service for other users, not to attempt to bypass access controls, and not to resell any tool, dataset, or printable published here as your own product.

Government data that we build on carries its own status. U.S. federal works are not subject to copyright under 17 U.S.C. §105, which is why aggregated federal datasets can be republished with attribution. Extension-service publications and other third-party material may be subject to their own terms, and this Site restates such material with attribution rather than reproducing it wholesale.

5. Intellectual Property

The selection, arrangement, structure, tools, written guides, and design of this Site are protected by copyright and belong to ZoneFig. You may link to any page and quote short passages with attribution, but you may not reproduce substantial portions of the Site, republish our structured datasets, or present our tools as your own without written permission.

Third-party names, cultivar names, product names, and agency names are used descriptively. ZoneFig does not endorse and is not endorsed by any brand, breeder, manufacturer, retailer, or agency, and no page on this Site carries affiliate or sponsored placements that influence a recommendation.

6. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, ZoneFig is not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of the Site. That includes, without limitation, loss of crops or plants, damage to soil, property, or watercourses, wasted expenditure on seeds, amendments, tools, or equipment, injury arising from the use of tools, machinery, or chemicals, and any reliance on an out-of-date or inapplicable figure, date, or recommendation. It also includes any interruption or unavailability of the Site.

You are responsible for the safety of your own working practices and for compliance with the laws, regulations, and product labels that apply where you garden, and that responsibility is not transferred by reading anything here.

7. Third-Party Links and Sources

The Site links to USDA and NOAA publications, state cooperative extension services, and other third-party resources so you can verify a figure at its source. We do not control those sites, we are not responsible for their content, availability, or privacy practices, and a link is not an endorsement. When a third-party page changes or disappears, our link may break before we can update it.

8. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms as the Site changes. The date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision, and continued use of the Site after a change constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

9. Contact

Questions about these Terms, a correction request, or a permissions enquiry can be sent to [email protected].