With the frightening news all over the media affirming that “workers at three major publishing houses told WIRED that LLMs are being used for publicity, cover art, back cover copy, and emails, as some execs push junior staff to champion the tech,” not to mention authors left and right being stopped due to their use of AI, we thought it was time.

We can assure you, 100%, that The Porch Gardener and TPG Press will NEVER use AI to write, and we expect our future authors at TPG to do the same. But “assuring” was no longer enough, as we know that, due to AI, most industries are now based on lies.

Not us. We stand behind the description on our About page, “a high-tech publication dedicated to a low-tech lifestyle, close to nature and away from the constant noise of politics and the excesses of social media.”

At any rate, at this delicate point in time, and despite our absolute certainty of our own full humanity, you never know for sure, so we took a deep breath, chose a sample of our texts, and went to Pangram.

What a joy! What a relief!

For full disclosure, we do use AI for spellchecking and light editing; after all, who doesn’t these days? Moreover, we don’t buy into the notion that, today, “a few mistakes here and there are actually charming.” No. They’re not.

Give credit where credit is due. Especially considering that English is my second language, I need some help to ensure quality, less and less each day, as I progressively turn the language in which my “writing machine engine” operates fully into English.

Read us safely. Publish with us safely. Live with confidence!

It’s not like I asked for it. I actually hate having to criticize, as the main goal of TPG is highlighting the pleasures of life, the joy of living a calm existence close to nature.

But if a provider doesn’t serve you and you do not talk about it, you are not serving your readers, so let’s get it over with.

Alstroemerias are one of my favorite flowers. They also are hardy and last a long time in a vase, so I thought I should plant them in the garden.

The first ones I bought arrived beautiful, full of life, but… I quickly found out that they were a “dwarf species.” Beautiful. But tiny.

Later I bought another pair from the good ones, and they’re doing fine, no flowers so far. But I’m hopeful. I always am.

Between these two orders from Easy to Grow — not blacklist material at all — I decided to adventure further and ordered some “professional” ones from Edelweiss Perennials. Now this will be my #1 on the TPG blacklist.

I received two tiny, feeble plants, but that was ok. The problem was that one of them died from the “get-go” (my husband hates this expression).

I emailed them, explained the situation.

The person created a lot of problems, said I would need to identify which of the two had died, and when I said I couldn’t, because they had no label and looked exactly the same in principle, he said I would have to wait until the flowers came, so he could identify them.

I waited. And waited. No flowers showed up the whole season.

And now this: Check the image above, and you will quickly identify which plant it is.

The money was not the issue.

I just wanted the replacement plant.

No longer.

I will never buy from them again and I seize the occasion to establish some rules: We will keep a blacklist, but no links, ok?

Happy gardening!