Last updated: June 30, 2026
FTC Compliance Statement
In accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR Part 255 "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising" and the FTC's .com Disclosures guidance, Real Food Grower discloses that we participate in several affiliate marketing programs. When you click certain links on this site and make a qualifying purchase, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Affiliate commissions help keep this site free to read and free of intrusive advertising.
What This Means in Plain English
We write guides about container gardening. Some of those guides recommend products — a fabric pot in a particular size, a self-watering planter we like, a seed variety that actually finishes in a short season. If you click one of those product links and buy the thing within the merchant's referral window (often 24 hours), the merchant pays us a small percentage of the sale. The price you pay is identical whether you used our link or not.
We do not get paid to write a guide. We do not accept money to include a product in a recommendation list. We do not run "sponsored posts" disguised as editorial. If we recommend a product, it is because we have used it, tested it, or have a working farmer on the team who has.
Partners We Work With
Real Food Grower currently participates, or plans to participate, in the following affiliate programs:
- Amazon Associates. The largest and most-used. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Most outbound product links currently go to Amazon because that's where most readers buy garden supplies.
- Home Depot Affiliate Program. For larger items (raised-bed kits, bulk soil, lumber) that are often cheaper at Home Depot than online retailers.
- Gardener's Supply Company. For specialty self-watering containers, season-extension gear, and the kind of products that aren't always on Amazon.
- True Leaf Market. Seeds, microgreens, and sprouting supplies.
- Epic Gardening / Botanical Interests. Seeds and grower-focused tools.
- Other small programs. We may join additional affiliate networks (Awin, ShareASale, Impact, Refersion-hosted brands) for niche products. Any new partner is disclosed here within 30 days of joining.
We do not participate in: pop-up ad networks, Taboola/Outbrain chumboxes, sponsored "best of" listicles for SEO link buyers, or pay-to-play product roundups.
Our Editorial Independence
Affiliate revenue is how we keep the lights on, but it does not steer the editorial. Three rules we hold to:
- We test before we recommend. A product appears in a guide because a member of the editorial team has actually grown plants with it. Where that is impossible (e.g. very expensive equipment), we say so explicitly and rely on documented specs and long-form reviews from people we trust.
- We have refused sponsors. We have turned down brands that asked us to soften a difficulty rating, drop a competing product from a roundup, or remove a negative observation from a review. We will keep doing this.
- We publish negative findings. If a product breaks after one season, we say so — even when we're an affiliate of the seller. Our long-term value to readers depends on telling the truth more than on next month's commission.
How to Identify Affiliate Links
Affiliate links on Real Food Grower are clearly marked. The conventions we follow:
- HTML attributes. Outbound affiliate links carry
rel="sponsored nofollow"as required by Google's link-attribute guidance and the FTC's clear-and-conspicuous standard. - Visible labels. Product-recommendation blocks include a short "(affiliate link)" label, an Amazon disclosure where required by the Associates Operating Agreement, or a header noting that the section may contain affiliate links.
- Per-page disclosure. Any article that recommends a paid product carries a short notice near the top linking back to this page.
If you ever cannot tell whether a link is an affiliate link, email us and we will tell you plainly.
Your Trust Matters More Than the Commission
The honest test we apply to every product link: would we recommend this if there were no commission? If the answer is no, the link comes out. If the answer is yes, the commission is just a way to fund the next guide — not the reason we wrote this one.
Container gardening is full of products that look great in stock photos and fail in real gardens. Our job is to filter those out for you. If we ever fail at that, the whole site loses value, and we know it.
Amazon-Specific Disclosure
As required by the Amazon Associates Operating Agreement: Real Food Grower is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Questions?
If you want to know whether a specific recommendation is an affiliate link, whether we've ever turned down a sponsor for a particular product category, or how a partnership might affect our coverage — ask us. We'll tell you.
Email: info@realfoodgrower.com
Subject line: "Disclosure question"