Disclosure
Affiliate disclosure
Short version: some links here earn us a commission, none of them change what we recommend, and we will always tell you when one is on the page.
Last updated: 5 August 2026
The plain-English version
Sometimes Gardening takes part in affiliate programmes. That means some links to products — typically tools, gloves, seeds, kneelers and similar gardening kit — carry a tracking tag. If you click one and buy something, the retailer pays us a small percentage of the sale. You pay exactly the same price you would have paid otherwise.
That commission is how the site pays for itself. It funds the research time, the hosting and the tools we buy to test. It does not buy anyone a place in a recommendation.
What we will not do
- No paid placements. A brand cannot buy a spot in a buying guide, a higher position in a list, or a mention in an existing article.
- No sponsored reviews. We do not accept payment in exchange for a review, a rating, or coverage of a product launch.
- No copy approval. No brand, retailer or PR agency sees an article before it publishes, and none of them gets to change what it says afterwards.
- No commission-led ranking. We do not sort recommendations by what pays best. Where two products are close, we say they are close.
- No hidden links. Affiliate links are marked with
rel="sponsored nofollow"and every page carrying them shows a notice near the top.
How we choose what to recommend
The full method is in our editorial policy, but the core of it is this: we recommend product types and the qualities that matter in them — a forged one-piece trowel over a riveted stamped one, bypass secateurs over anvil for green stems, a kneeler with a wide enough pad to matter — before we recommend any particular model.
That is deliberate. Specific models get discontinued, re-sourced and quietly cheapened, and a guide built entirely on model numbers is wrong within two years. A guide built on what makes a tool good is still useful when the model has changed.
When we have used something for a full season we say so. When we are reasoning from construction, materials and specification rather than long-term use, we say that too.
Gifted and sample products
If a manufacturer sends us something free of charge, that is disclosed in the article itself, and it does not create any obligation to cover the product positively — or at all. We do not return samples in exchange for coverage, and we do not agree to conditions attached to receiving one.
Programmes we use
We participate in retailer and marketplace affiliate programmes, which may include Amazon Associates and similar schemes operated by garden retailers. Where a programme requires specific wording, that wording appears in the footer of the relevant page.
Prices
Any price we quote is a typical band at the time of writing, not a live figure. Garden kit is seasonal and prices swing hard in spring. Always check the current price before you buy; we cannot be responsible for changes at the retailer.
Questions
If you think something on this site reads like an advert, tell us — that is a failure on our part and we want to know. Email hello@sometimes-gardening.com or use the contact page.
This page describes our own practices and is written to satisfy the disclosure expectations of the FTC (United States), the CMA (United Kingdom) and comparable regimes. It is not legal advice; if you are reusing this site as a template, have your own disclosure reviewed for your jurisdiction and programmes.