About Folly and this blog

How our articles are made

Our articles are researched from horticultural sources such as the RHS and written with Claude, Anthropic's assistant.

Every new article is checked automatically before it goes live. It has to open with a short answer, stay within a set length, credit its photo and link to related guides. It cannot go out if it types a price or an app limit, names another app, gives a home-made treatment recipe, or says a plant is toxic or safe for pets without linking the source. We read what is published, and we correct or remove anything that falls short.

Where a new article gives a figure or a safety claim, it ends with the page behind it. Before the article goes live, every one of those pages is fetched again to confirm it still says what we quote.

What we will and will not advise

• We start with what you can do yourself: rinsing a plant, isolating it, changing how you water, sticky traps and beneficial insects.
• Where a product helps, we describe the type of product rather than a brand, and ask you to check it is approved for houseplants or edible crops and to follow the label.
• We do not publish home-made pesticide recipes or mixing ratios.
• When we say a plant can harm pets or children, we link the source, and we never give medical advice. If you think a pet has eaten part of a plant, contact your vet. If a person has, call NHS 111, or 999 if they are seriously unwell.

Corrections

If something in an article is wrong or out of date, email [email protected] and tell us which article. We fix errors promptly, and we update an article's date whenever its advice changes.