Terms & Conditions

Effective Date: January 15, 2026
Last Updated: January 15, 2026

The Legal Stuff (In Human Language)

Welcome to City Cultivator. By using this website, you’re agreeing to these terms. We’ve tried to make this readable and fair, but it’s still a legal document, so parts will sound formal. Bear with us.

Acceptance of Terms

When you access citycultivator.com, read our content, email us, or interact with the site in any way, you’re agreeing to these terms. If you don’t agree, please don’t use the site.

We can update these terms at any time. If we make major changes, we’ll post a notice on the homepage for at least 30 days. Continued use of the site after changes means you accept the new terms.

What You Can Do With Our Content

Personal, non-commercial use:

You’re welcome to:

  • Read our articles and save them for your own reference
  • Print articles for your personal gardening notes
  • Share links to our content on social media
  • Try our techniques in your own garden
  • Send article links to friends who might find them helpful

What requires permission:

You need to ask us first (email [email protected]) before:

  • Republishing our content on your own website or blog
  • Using our photos in your own articles or presentations
  • Creating derivative works based on our content
  • Using our content for commercial purposes
  • Translating our articles into other languages for publication

We’re usually pretty generous with permissions—just ask.

What’s absolutely not allowed:

Don’t:

  • Copy and paste entire articles onto your own site
  • Remove our watermarks from photos
  • Claim our content as your own work
  • Scrape our site with bots to steal content
  • Use our content to train AI models without permission

Intellectual Property Rights

Our content:

Everything on City Cultivator—articles, photos, graphics, videos, the site design—is owned by us (Maya Chen and Jake Morrison) unless otherwise noted. It’s protected by copyright law.

Some photos are licensed from stock photo sites or contributed by readers with attribution. Those remain property of their respective owners.

Your content:

When you email us, comment, or submit guest posts, you keep ownership of your content. But you grant us permission to:

  • Publish your comment or guest post on our site
  • Use your submitted photos in relevant articles (with attribution)
  • Share your success stories or tips with our community
  • Feature your content in our newsletter or social media

We’ll always credit you and won’t use your content in ways that misrepresent your intentions.

Reader photos and submissions:

If you send us photos of your garden, you’re giving us permission to use them on the site, in newsletters, and on social media with attribution to you. If you want photos removed later, just ask.

User Contributions & Comments

When comments launch, here are the rules:

Be respectful:

  • No personal attacks on other commenters or us
  • Criticism of ideas is fine; attacking people isn’t
  • No racist, sexist, homophobic, or discriminatory language
  • Keep it relevant to gardening and small spaces

No spam:

  • Don’t use comments to promote your own products/services
  • No affiliate links in comments
  • Don’t post the same comment on multiple articles
  • One identity per person (no fake accounts)

We reserve the right to:

  • Delete comments that violate these rules
  • Ban repeat offenders from commenting
  • Edit comments for typos or clarity (rarely, and we’ll mark edits)
  • Close comments on old posts if spam becomes an issue

Legal stuff about comments: You’re responsible for what you post. We’re not liable for comments made by users. If someone posts something illegal or defamatory, that’s on them, not us.

Guest Post Submissions

When you submit a guest post:

You confirm that:

  • The content is your original work
  • You own the rights to any photos included
  • You haven’t plagiarized from other sources
  • Any quotes or references are properly attributed
  • You have permission to share the information

We reserve the right to:

  • Edit submissions for clarity, length, or style
  • Reject submissions that don’t fit our quality standards
  • Request revisions before publishing
  • Remove published posts if we later discover issues

You keep copyright to your work, but you grant us a non-exclusive license to publish and promote it indefinitely.

Third-Party Links

Our site includes links to other websites, products, and resources we think are helpful. We’re not responsible for:

  • The content on those sites
  • Their privacy practices
  • Their accuracy or safety
  • Whether they’re still operational

Clicking external links is at your own risk. We try to only link to reputable sources, but we can’t guarantee everything stays current or reliable.

Future affiliate links: When we add affiliate links (products we recommend), we’ll clearly mark them. If you purchase through an affiliate link, we might earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This doesn’t influence our recommendations—we only recommend products we actually use.

Disclaimer of Warranties

Here’s the legally required part:

The site is provided “as is”:

  • We don’t guarantee the site will always be available or error-free
  • We can’t promise every technique will work in every situation
  • We’re not responsible if something breaks on your end
  • Technical issues happen; we’ll fix them as fast as we can

Content accuracy: We work hard to provide accurate information, but:

  • Gardening is complex and variable
  • What works in one space might not work in another
  • Plant varieties, products, and supplies change
  • We update content regularly but can’t catch everything instantly

No professional advice: The information on City Cultivator is educational, not professional consultation. We’re sharing what worked for us, not providing certified horticultural advice. (See our Disclaimer page for more on this.)

Limitation of Liability

Here’s what we’re NOT responsible for:

  • Plant failures, even if you followed our advice exactly
  • Damage to property from gardening activities
  • Injuries from gardening techniques
  • Pest infestations or plant diseases
  • Issues with landlords over balcony gardens
  • Structural damage from container weight
  • Product failures or issues
  • Time or money spent on unsuccessful growing attempts

Reality check: Gardening involves risk. You’re responsible for:

  • Checking your lease before modifying your space
  • Ensuring structures can support container weight
  • Using appropriate safety equipment
  • Verifying plant toxicity if you have pets/kids
  • Following local regulations about outdoor containers

We’re not being jerks—this is just legal reality. Gardening in small spaces sometimes involves experimentation and risk. Use common sense and make your own judgment calls.

Indemnification

Legal speak: You agree to defend and hold us harmless from any claims arising from your use of the site or violation of these terms.

Plain English: If you do something problematic using our content and someone sues, that’s on you, not us.

Termination

We can restrict or terminate your access to the site if:

  • You violate these terms repeatedly
  • You engage in abusive behavior toward us or other users
  • You’re using the site for illegal purposes
  • You’re scraping content or causing technical problems

We’ll usually warn you first unless the violation is severe.

Governing Law & Jurisdiction

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Oregon, United States, without regard to conflict of law provisions.

Any disputes will be resolved in the courts of Multnomah County, Oregon. If you’re outside the US, this might be inconvenient, but it protects us as a small operation.

Severability

If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest still applies. We’re not trying to sneak anything past you—this is standard legal protection.

Entire Agreement

These Terms & Conditions, along with our Privacy Policy and Disclaimer, constitute the complete agreement between you and City Cultivator regarding use of the site.

Contact for Legal Questions

For questions about these terms:
Email: [email protected]
Subject line: “TERMS QUESTION”

For formal legal correspondence:
City Cultivator
1847 Maple Street, Unit 6B
Portland, OR 97214
United States

We’ll respond to legal questions within 7 business days.

We wrote this in the most human language possible while still maintaining legal protection. If anything is unclear, please ask.