Clean up the Garden Watchdog?

I sure the Admin already knows this but....the Garden Watchdog really needs to be cleaned up. Maybe if there was a email we could send broken links to and then they could confirm and remove. Some places have notes saying they are closed from years ago yet they are still on there.

Any time you find a bad link or a note saying a business has closed, just click the Contact Us link at the bottom of the page and tell us. We'll look for an alternate URL or confirm a closing and mark the page if needed. There are over 7,000 vendors in the GWD and we do depend on members to let us know if they see something that needs an edit. We catch quite a few, but know that others slip through the cracks. I assure you, we'll follow through on any that you notify us about.

The Contact Us link will keep everything in a special area where we can keep a record of what we've worked on.

Just a thought. It might not be a bad idea to keep the information in some form in case the business later reopens under another name. I've seen references in GWD in the past where someone indicates that this business is associated with a list of other failed businesses. In that case, the track record of the prior business may help to establish some indication as to what to expect from the new one. Again, just a thought, and I hope I've explained it in a coherent manner.

I also like the idea of keeping closed businesses listed for that reason, and also I've seen a number of posts over time from people wondering "what happened to company x, I can't get on their website anymore" and being able to go to GWD and see that there's a note there saying the company closed would be helpful.

Yes, we do have records of all that we can confirm. We usually indicate this with a (formerly xyz nursery) along side of the new name. If you have any information on vendors that we do not have noted, let us know.

I would love a couple of things listed in the scoop page that lists clearly things like

1. whole sellers only (or retail orders accepted)
2. no mail orders ( or online orders accepted )


This would be just like you currently list specialties and other useful information. It would save a lot of time to avoid companies that don't do online business when searching for a source. Thanks, Patti

We do have the retail/wholesale option available (or an option to indicate that they do both) Not all submitters elect to enable the option, but if you'll let me know when you find one, I'll be happy to make the edit. The mail order or on line option is interesting. If you can send me a note when you find one, I can post a note to that effect.

Will do. Thanks, I have run across many. Ha, But now let me try to find them again. Patti

I don't know how this could be done but it sure would be helpful if when you're searching for sellers who specialize in a specific plant - roses, daylilies, iris, etc. - that it wouldn't call up every seller who sells one rose, one daylily, one iris. Am I making sense? I would imagine the sellers are checking off everything they sell a few of (or in some cases that they don't sell at all) probably so they'll show up in more searches. But if I'm looking for daylily sellers, I'd rather find the ones who are daylily sellers or that specialize in daylilies and perhaps one other plant, not general nurseries that sell a daylily or two.

I think it's really helpful that the defunct sellers are still listed with a note that they're closed.

Actually, sellers are limited to just two specialties. We went through a couple of years ago and asked everyone to choose the two that most represented their business. The system will not let them choose more than two.

We have the option for the big mega-businesses to say that they have a variety of plants or seeds, but the specific categories such as iris or roses should now have vendors who consider these their main focus.

We leave the closed vendors in the GWD so that it helps people know when a business has closed. It also helps if someone tries to add a closed business to the database. We do not have to repeatedly edit the listing.