The shop is closed just now. The shop is not open for orders yet. Everything here is real and grown in my own yard — have a look around — but I am not taking money until the last few things are in place. Ask about a plant

Mysterious Yard
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The library is not finished

Add to it

The glossary and the cultivar library are kept current rather than written once and left. If you know a word they are missing, a name they have wrong, or something about a clone that ought to be recorded — send it. If a photograph would show me what you mean, send that too.

A person reads everything before it appears. Nothing you send goes on the site by itself, most of what arrives is not used, and what is used is usually rewritten to match the rest of the library. Your words are kept exactly as you sent them either way.

Photographs are never published on this site. A picture you send is a private reference — something I look at to work out whether a correction is right, or what a plant actually is. It does not go on a page, in the library, or anywhere else. Every photograph published here was taken in this yard.

What happens to it

  1. Step 1

    You send it

    A word, a correction, something about a cultivar, or a photograph of a plant you grow. No account, no email address.

  2. Step 2

    It gets checked and tidied

    Everything is screened before it reaches me — anything off-topic, abusive or advertising never gets through. What survives is rewritten to match the rest of the library, and your original is kept beside it.

  3. Step 3

    I read it and decide

    Words might then go on the site — with your name on them if you left one. Photographs never do: they are only ever something for me to look at. Most submissions are not used, and nothing is published automatically.

Send it in

One thing at a time is easiest — pick what it is and the form asks for what that needs.

What are you sending?

0 of 2000 characters

A few words. It sits under the definition.

It sits beside the entry if it's used. Leave it blank to stay anonymous — no email is ever asked for.

A person reads everything before it appears. Nothing you send goes on the site by itself, and photographs are never put on the site at all.

What you are agreeing to

Photographs are never published here
A picture you send is not going on the site — not on a page, not in the library, not on social. It is a private reference: something to look at while working out whether a correction is right, or what a plant actually is. Only photographs taken in this yard are published here. If you want your photograph seen, post it somewhere you control.
What you send stays yours
You keep the copyright in your own words and your own photographs. Sending words here gives Mysterious Yard permission to publish those words on this site — it does not hand the work over, and it is not exclusive: you can still post them anywhere else you like. Sending a photograph gives permission to keep it and look at it, and nothing more.
It will probably be edited
A definition is rewritten to match the rest of the library before it goes anywhere: house wording, house shape, and checked against more than one source. What appears may read quite differently from what you sent. If that is not something you want, this is the point to stop.
Only your own plants, and nobody's face
Send a photograph only if you took it, of a plant you own. No people in the frame, and nothing that gives away where you live — a house number, a street sign, a number plate. Every photograph that is kept has its location data and camera metadata stripped before it is stored, and the file you uploaded is never written to disk.
Credit, if you want it
Leave a name and it goes beside the entry your words become. A photograph gets no byline because it is never shown. Leave the name blank and nothing says who sent it. Either way an email address is never asked for and never stored.
What is not welcome
This is a horticulture site and it stays one. Anything about consuming these plants is turned down automatically and is not passed on to anybody. So is advertising, and so is abuse.
Turning something down, and taking something back
Most submissions are simply not used, and there is no appeal process — this is one grower's reference library, not a wiki. Nothing you send is passed to anyone else or used for anything but this site. If you change your mind, say so on the contact page with roughly what you sent and when: words already published are taken down, and a photograph is deleted off the disk.

I wrote this page myself, for a one-person nursery, in plain English — a lawyer did not write it, and where a term here is one California law does not let a seller change, the law wins. Ask me anything about it before you order rather than after.

Sent something and changed your mind, or found your own work on a page here? Ask for it to be taken down. No account, and every request is read by a person.

Not what you were after? Read the glossary, browse the cultivar library, or message me directly.