At Epic Gardening, part of what I do is review products that I use to grow plants. I do this to help other gardeners make good buying decisions, because I have used and abused a lot of products and have a good idea of what works.
Here are the types of reviews you’ll see on Epic Gardening:
Product Category Reviews
These are the most common reviews you’ll see. It’s hard to know which products are the best in a category. For example, if you’re looking for a ceramic metal halide grow light, how do you know which one is the best for you?
It’s hard to answer this question by reading manufacturer websites, because they all have an incentive to promote their product as the best. It’s also hard to cobble together information from Amazon reviews or forums, because they’re all over the place and you don’t know how reliable they are.
I try to provide comprehensive information about two things:
- What you need to know about the product category in general, and
- The absolute best products you can buy in that category
Single Product Reviews
Every now and then, I write reviews on single products. A good example is my review of the Bluelab pH Pen, one of my favorite tools for measuring pH in your garden. From time to time, I am given products by a company.
If this is the case, you will always see me mention it in my post so you understand that I was gifted the product. However, I do not promise companies a good review. I promise to review their product fairly, which sometimes means I don’t recommend it to my readers. Companies that do donate their products are aware of this.
Brand Reviews
The last type of review you’ll see on Epic Gardening is a profile of a brand. A good example is my review of Gorilla Grow Tents, my favorite company for high-end indoor grow tents.
In these reviews I am to give you some background on a company, the products they produce, and what (if anything) separates them from the other competitors in their industry.
Final Thoughts
If I have received an item for free from a manufacturer, you will see this line at the bottom of the review:
Full Disclosure: [Company] provided it to Epic Gardening to use and evaluate for review purposes. See the review process here.
Of course, it is possible that receiving gardening gear for free has the potential to unconsciously influence the way that I review products. I try to combat this in a few ways:
- If I don’t feel like a product is even worth reviewing, I often refuse a manufacturer’s request to send me their product. For reference, I end up refusing about 8/10 requests.
- I never accept money in exchange for a positive review.
- I try my best to be impartial and review the product an as unbiased a way as possible.
However, if you personally believe that receiving free gear will bias my reviews no matter what…I respect your opinion.
As Epic Gardening grows, it is my goal to eventually be able to purchase, use, and review all of the gear that I use to grow plants myself. But right now, it’s simply too expensive to do this, so from time to time I do accept offers of free gear.
If it bothers you that I get gear for free, then please feel free to Google around for other reviews and opinions. It may take some searching (which is part of the reason I began reviewing gardening products in the first place), but I’m sure you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for.
In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions by contacting me at kevin [at] epic gardening [dot] com.
Keep Growing,
Kevin
