Privacy Policy

What we keep, why we keep it, and how we care for it 🌱

The Garden People is a mindfulness project created by Maria Allen. This site lives at thegardenpeople.life and is managed by Maria and her development team. We believe your information deserves the same care we give the garden — tended with intention, never taken for granted.

This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and what choices you have. It was last updated on May 1, 2026.

What We Collect

When you create an account:

Your name, email address, and password
Your city and state
A garden nickname and garden emoji (optional, chosen by you)

When you use the site:

Comments you post on Garden People pages
Reactions (emoji) you leave on Garden People
Community submissions — the name, story, ingredients, and photo of a Garden Person you share

When you subscribe to Garden Notes (our newsletter):

Your email address

Automatically:

Your browser stores a session token (in localStorage, not a cookie) so you stay signed in between visits
Our hosting provider (Vercel) may log your IP address and browser type as part of standard web server operation

Why We Collect It

Account information — so you can sign in, post comments, react to Garden People, and participate in the community
City and state — to show where our community members are gardening (displayed only as general location, never your full address)
Newsletter email — to send you Garden Notes when new Garden People sprout (you can unsubscribe anytime)
Comments, reactions, and submissions — to build a community around the Garden People practice

We do not sell your information. We do not use your data for advertising. We do not share it with anyone who isn’t helping us run this site.

Services That Help Us Run the Garden

We use a small number of trusted services to keep the site running. Each one receives only the data it needs:

Supabase — our database and authentication provider. Stores your account, comments, reactions, and community submissions.
Resend — sends transactional emails (password reset, email confirmation) on our behalf.
Buttondown — powers the Garden Notes newsletter. Receives your email when you subscribe. Buttondown uses double opt-in: you’ll get a confirmation email before any newsletters are sent.
Vercel — hosts the website. Standard server logs.
Sanity — our content management system. Stores Garden People content (not user data).

Cookies & Local Storage

We do not use tracking cookies. We do not run analytics scripts, advertising pixels, or any third-party trackers.

The only thing stored in your browser is a session token (via localStorage) that keeps you signed in. This is created when you log in and removed when you sign out. It is not shared with anyone.

Your Choices

Unsubscribe from Garden Notes — every newsletter includes an unsubscribe link at the bottom.
Delete your account — email maria@thegardenpeople.life and we’ll remove your account and associated data.
Request your data — email us and we’ll send you a copy of what we have.

Children

The Garden People is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children. If you believe a child has created an account, please contact us and we’ll remove it.

Changes to This Policy

If we make meaningful changes to this policy, we’ll update the date at the top. For significant changes, we may also note it in Garden Notes.

Questions?

If anything here is unclear, or you have questions about your information, reach out to maria@thegardenpeople.life. We’re happy to help.