Terms and Conditions
1. Introduction
Welcome to Rational Gardening. (“Company,” “we,” “our,” “us”).
These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the websites, web applications, mobile applications, software, content, and services provided by Rational Gardening, Inc. (“Rational Gardening,” “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”).
Our services include Garden Advisor and any other Rational Gardening websites, applications, subscriptions, information services, and related products that link to these Terms. Collectively, these are referred to as the “Services.”
Please read these Terms carefully. By creating an account, beginning a free trial, purchasing a membership, clicking an acceptance checkbox, or otherwise using the Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms.
If you do not agree, you may not use our Services.
Related Polices
These Terms incorporate by reference our:
- Privacy Policy;
- Gardening and Information Disclaimer; and
- any additional terms presented when you purchase or use a particular Service.
Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, retain, and disclose personal information.
Our Gardening and Information Disclaimer explains important limitations concerning gardening recommendations, weather information, plant information, pest information, soil information, artificial intelligence, forecasts, and other content provided through the Services.
If there is a conflict between these Terms and terms presented for a specific paid plan or product, the terms presented for that specific plan or product will control with respect to that purchase.
2. Eligibility
- You must be at least 18 years old and legally capable of entering into a binding contract to create an account, take a survey, make a purchase, or use our services.
- By using our Services, you meet these requirements and that the information you provide is accurate and complete.
- The Services are intended for users located in the United States unless we expressly state otherwise.
3. The Services
Rational Gardening provides software and information intended to help users understand and manage gardens, plants, weather conditions, soil conditions, pests, seasonal conditions, and related horticultural activities.
Features may include:
- location-aware gardening information;
- plant-specific and garden-wide recommendations;
- weather data and forecasts;
- soil temperature and soil-moisture estimates;
- pest and disease information;
- seasonal alerts;
- task suggestions;
- garden records;
- artificial intelligence-generated information;
- educational materials; and
- other gardening-related tools and content.
The availability and functionality of particular features may depend on your location, selected plants, device, membership level, data availability, and other factors.
4. Accounts
Some Services require an account.
You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete account information and to keep that information updated.
You are responsible for:
- maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials;
- activity occurring through your account;
- using reasonable security practices; and
- notifying us promptly if you believe your account has been accessed without authorization.
You may not share, sell, transfer, or provide your account credentials to another person unless a particular membership plan expressly permits multiple users.
We may require you to verify your identity or account information before providing account access, support, or certain account changes.
5. 30-Day Free Trials
Rational Gardening may offer eligible users a free 30-day trial of certain Services or membership features.
5.1 Trial period
The trial begins when you activate the trial and continues for 30 consecutive calendar days unless we specify a different starting date in the trial offer.
The trial ends automatically at the end of the 30-day period.
5.2 No payment information required
You are not required to provide a credit card, debit card, bank account, or other payment method to begin the free trial.
5.3 No automatic conversion or charge
The free trial does not automatically convert to a paid membership.
We will not automatically charge you when the trial ends.
You do not need to cancel the trial to avoid being charged.
To continue using paid membership features after the trial ends, you must separately and affirmatively select a paid plan, provide a payment method, review the applicable pricing and renewal terms, and authorize the purchase.
Your failure to take action at the end of the trial will not be treated as consent to purchase a paid membership.
5.4 Access after the trial
When the trial ends, your access to trial-only or paid membership features will end or may be reduced to any free level of service that we make available at that time.
Information stored in your account may remain available, become temporarily inaccessible, or be retained for a limited period following the trial. Our handling of personal information is described in our Privacy Policy.
You may request deletion of your account and personal information, subject to applicable legal, security, and record-retention requirements.
5.5 Trial eligibility
Unless otherwise stated in the trial offer, a free trial is limited to one trial per person and one trial per account.
We may also limit trials by household, organization, device, payment account, email address, or other reasonable criteria intended to prevent abuse.
You may not create multiple accounts or use false information to obtain additional free trials.
5.6 Trial features
Trial features may differ from those included in a paid membership. We may identify the features included in the trial on the signup page or within the applicable Service.
We may suspend or terminate a trial if we reasonably determine that the user has:
- violated these Terms;
- attempted to obtain multiple trials improperly;
- interfered with the operation or security of the Services;
- used the Services unlawfully; or
- engaged in fraudulent or abusive activity.
We will not impose a charge merely because a trial has been suspended or terminated.
6. Paid Memberships
A paid membership begins only after you affirmatively purchase a paid plan.
Before completing a purchase, we will present the applicable:
- membership plan;
- price;
- billing period;
- included features;
- renewal terms, if applicable;
- cancellation method; and
- other material purchase terms.
6.1 Recurring memberships
Some paid memberships may renew automatically. When a paid membership automatically renews, the renewal terms will be disclosed clearly at checkout before you authorize the purchase.
By purchasing an automatically renewing membership, you authorize us or our payment provider to charge the disclosed recurring membership fees and applicable taxes until you cancel the membership.
The 30-day free trial described in Section 5 is separate from this authorization and does not enroll you in an automatically renewing membership.
6.2 Cancellation
You may cancel an automatically renewing membership through the cancellation method disclosed at checkout, in your account settings, or in the purchase acknowledgment.
Unless otherwise stated, cancellation stops future renewals. You will ordinarily retain access through the end of the billing period for which you have already paid.
Deleting an application from your device does not necessarily cancel a paid membership.
6.3 App-store purchases
Memberships purchased through Apple, Google, or another application marketplace may be billed, renewed, canceled, and refunded through that marketplace.
The marketplace’s billing and refund policies may apply to those transactions.
6.4 Fees and taxes
You agree to pay the fees and applicable taxes presented when you purchase a paid membership.
Except where required by law or expressly stated in the applicable purchase terms, fees already paid are nonrefundable.
6.5 Price changes
We may change membership prices prospectively. We will provide any notice required by law before a new price applies to an existing automatically renewing membership.
7. Surveys and Gift Certificates
- From time to time, we may invite individuals to participate in surveys.
- As compensation, we may provide gift certificates for use in our store or at participating partner locations.
- Gift certificates:
- Are issued in unique codes and must be redeemed before the expiration date stated on the certificate.
- Are not transferable, refundable, or redeemable for cash unless required by law.
- May only be used for eligible purchases through our store or designated partner.
8. Products (Future Sales)
- We may offer plants, gardening supplies, digital products, or other items for sale in our store.
- All product descriptions, pricing, and availability are subject to change without notice.
- We reserve the right to limit the quantity of items purchased.
9. Orders and Payment
- When you place an order, you agree to provide current, complete, and accurate payment and account information.
- All payments are processed securely through our payment providers (e.g., Stripe, PayPal).
- We are not responsible for any errors caused by third-party payment processors.
10. Shipping, Delivery, and Returns
- Shipping options, delivery times, and costs will be provided during checkout.
- Risk of loss passes to you upon delivery to the carrier.
- Return and refund policies will be posted on the website once product sales begin.
11. License to Use the Services
Subject to your compliance with these Terms, Rational Gardening grants you a limited, revocable, nonexclusive, nontransferable, and nonsublicensable license to access and use the Services for your personal, household, or authorized internal business purposes.
This license does not transfer ownership of the Services or any Rational Gardening intellectual property to you.
12. Prohibited Uses
You may not:
- copy, sell, license, distribute, or commercially exploit the Services except as expressly authorized;
- reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or attempt to derive source code from the Services, except where applicable law expressly permits it;
- scrape, crawl, harvest, index, or systematically extract information from the Services using automated means without our written permission;
- use bots, scripts, or automated systems to create accounts or obtain multiple trials;
- interfere with the operation, security, or availability of the Services;
- probe, scan, or test vulnerabilities without written authorization;
- bypass access controls, membership restrictions, or usage limits;
- upload malware or harmful code;
- impersonate another person or organization;
- submit false, misleading, infringing, or unlawful content;
- use the Services to violate another person’s rights;
- use the Services in violation of applicable law; or
- use Rational Gardening content or output to develop or train a competing product or dataset without our written permission.
13. User Content and Garden Data
You may provide information such as:
- garden locations;
- plant selections;
- garden records;
- photographs;
- questions;
- observations;
- feedback;
- soil or growing information; and
- other material you submit through the Services.
You retain ownership of content that you create and submit.
You grant Rational Gardening a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, process, format, transmit, and display your content as reasonably necessary to:
- provide the Services to you;
- maintain and secure the Services;
- troubleshoot and provide support;
- comply with law; and
- improve the Services, subject to our Privacy Policy.
You represent that you have the rights necessary to submit your content and permit us to use it as described in these Terms.
You should not submit content that is unlawful, infringing, harmful, deceptive, or invasive of another person’s privacy.
14. Feedback
If you provide suggestions, ideas, comments, survey responses, or other feedback concerning the Services, you grant Rational Gardening permission to use that feedback without restriction or compensation.
This does not transfer ownership of your personal garden records, photographs, or other user content unrelated to the feedback.
15. Intellectual Property
The Services and their contents are owned by Rational Gardening or its licensors and are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws.
Protected materials may include:
- software and source code;
- application design;
- databases and data organization;
- text and educational material;
- graphics and illustrations;
- logos, names, and trademarks;
- generated reports;
- recommendation formats;
- proprietary models, rules, and algorithms; and
- compilations and arrangements of content.
Except for the limited license granted in these Terms, no right or license is granted to Rational Gardening’s intellectual property.
You may not copy, distribute, or exploit any content without our prior written permission.
“Rational Gardening,” “Garden Advisor,” and related names and logos may be trademarks of Rational Gardening. You may not copy, distribute, or exploit any content or use it in a manner that suggests sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement without written permission.
16. Third-Party Services and Data
The Services may rely on or display information from third parties, including providers of:
- weather information;
- forecasts and alerts;
- mapping services;
- soil information;
- environmental data;
- pest or plant information;
- payment processing;
- hosting;
- authentication; and
- application marketplace services.
Third-party data may be delayed, incomplete, unavailable, or inaccurate.
We do not control third-party services and are not responsible for their availability, security, accuracy, or separate terms and privacy practices.
Links to third-party websites do not necessarily indicate endorsement.
17. Gardening, Weather, and Safety Disclaimer
The Services provide general gardening and horticultural information. They are not a substitute for direct inspection of your property, plants, soil, irrigation system, weather conditions, or local environment.
Recommendations may be based on estimated, modeled, historical, forecast, user-provided, or third-party information.
Conditions can vary substantially over short distances. Actual conditions in your garden may differ from the information provided through the Services.
You remain responsible for:
- inspecting actual garden and weather conditions;
- deciding whether and how to act on recommendations;
- protecting people, animals, property, and plants;
- following product labels and manufacturer instructions;
- complying with pesticide, fertilizer, water-use, environmental, and other applicable laws; and
- obtaining qualified professional assistance when appropriate.
Do not rely exclusively on the Services for decisions involving personal safety, wildfire, flooding, severe weather, toxic plants, pesticide exposure, food safety, structural hazards, or other potentially dangerous conditions.
Additional limitations are described in our Gardening and Information Disclaimer.
18. Artificial Intelligence and Automated Information
Some information may be generated, summarized, selected, or prioritized using artificial intelligence, machine learning, automated rules, or similar systems.
Automated content may contain errors, omissions, unsupported assumptions, or outdated information.
You should independently evaluate recommendations before acting on them, particularly where the consequences could involve injury, property damage, plant loss, chemical use, food safety, or substantial expense.
Rational Gardening does not guarantee that artificial intelligence-generated or automated content will be accurate, complete, current, or appropriate for your particular circumstances.
19. Service Availability and Changes
We do not guarantee that the Services will always be available, uninterrupted, secure, or error-free.
We may add, modify, limit, suspend, or discontinue features for reasons including:
- maintenance;
- security;
- legal requirements;
- third-party data availability;
- product development;
- technical limitations; or
- business considerations.
When reasonably practicable, we will provide notice before discontinuing a material paid feature.
20. Account Suspension and Termination
You may stop using the Services at any time.
We may suspend or terminate your account or access if we reasonably believe that you:
- violated these Terms;
- created a security or legal risk;
- engaged in fraud or abuse;
- failed to pay applicable fees;
- infringed another person’s rights; or
- used the Services in a manner that could harm Rational Gardening, our users, or third parties.
Where appropriate, we may provide notice and an opportunity to correct the violation.
Sections that by their nature should survive termination will remain effective, including sections concerning intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, dispute resolution, and accrued payment obligations.
21. User Conduct
You agree not to:
- Use the Services for unlawful purposes.
- Interfere with website functionality or security.
- Misuse surveys, gift certificates, or promotional offers.
22. Disclaimer of Warranties
To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.
Rational Gardening disclaims all warranties, whether express, implied, or statutory, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, noninfringement, accuracy, and quiet enjoyment.
We do not warrant that:
- the Services will meet every user’s needs;
- recommendations will produce a particular gardening result;
- crops or plants will survive or produce a particular yield;
- forecasts or environmental information will be accurate;
- pest or disease information will be correct;
- errors will be corrected; or
- the Services will be uninterrupted or free from harmful components.
Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty exclusions. In those jurisdictions, these exclusions apply only to the extent permitted by law.
23. Limitation of Liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Rational Gardening and its directors, officers, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, and service providers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages arising from or related to the Services.
This includes loss of plants, crops, harvests, revenue, profits, data, use, business opportunities, or goodwill.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, the total aggregate liability of Rational Gardening arising from or related to the Services will not exceed the greater of:
- The amount you paid to Rational Gardening for the applicable Service during the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim; or
- One hundred dollars.
These limitations apply regardless of the legal theory asserted and even if Rational Gardening was advised that damages were possible.
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability arising from fraud, willful misconduct, or other conduct for which limitation is prohibited by applicable law.
24. Indemnification
To the extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Rational Gardening and its directors, officers, employees, contractors, and agents from claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and reasonable expenses arising from:
- your unlawful use of the Services;
- your material violation of these Terms;
- content you submit;
- your infringement of another person’s rights; or
- fraud, intentional misconduct, or misuse of your account.
This obligation does not apply to the extent a claim results from Rational Gardening’s own negligence, willful misconduct, or violation of law.
25. Governing Law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.
Any dispute that is not resolved informally will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Placer County, California, unless applicable consumer law gives you the right to bring a claim elsewhere.
You and Rational Gardening consent to the jurisdiction of those courts.
Nothing in these Terms prevents either party from bringing an eligible claim in small-claims court.
26. Changes to These Terms
We may revise these Terms from time to time.
When changes are material, we will provide reasonable notice through the Services, by email, or through another appropriate method. The revised Terms will state their effective date.
Where required by law, we will obtain your affirmative agreement before applying materially revised terms to your existing account or paid membership.
Your continued use after revised Terms become effective constitutes acceptance only to the extent permitted by law.
27. Electronic Communications
You consent to receive account notices, transaction records, legal disclosures, and other Service-related communications electronically.
Marketing communications are separate from essential account and transaction communications. You may unsubscribe from marketing emails using the method provided in those communications.
28. Assignment
You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our written permission.
Rational Gardening may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, financing, sale of assets, or transfer of the applicable business, subject to applicable law.
29. Severability
If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted, and the remaining provisions will remain in effect.
30. No Waiver
A failure to enforce a provision of these Terms is not a waiver of the right to enforce it later.
31. Entire Agreement
These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, Gardening and Information Disclaimer, applicable purchase disclosures, and any product-specific terms, constitute the entire agreement between you and Rational Gardening concerning the Services.
32. Contact Us
If you have questions about these Terms, please contact:
Rational Gardening
116 South Grant Street, STE 110-185
Roseville, CA 95678
support@rationalgardening.com Rational Gardening (“we,” “our,” “us”) values your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information when you use our website, applications, and services (together, the “Services”).
