Cookies
Last updated 17 October 2026
House & Hedge sets no cookies of its own. Not one for a session, not one for a preference, not one to count you. The journal keeps what it needs on your device in local storage instead, which is a different thing and is described below.
What a cookie is, and why the distinction matters
A cookie is a small file a site asks your browser to keep and then send back with every request to that site. The sending back is the point: it lets a server recognise a returning browser, and it is what makes tracking across pages and across sites possible.
Local storage is different. It stays in the browser, it is never attached to a request, and a server cannot ask for it. The journal uses local storage for your plant list precisely because it cannot travel.
Cookies on this site
None of our own. Adverts from Google AdSense appear on the content pages, and Google's advertising script is loaded on every page except this one, the privacy page, the error pages and the pages the site keeps out of search results, such as plant entries that have not yet been checked and the translated pages. The error pages are the pages shown for an address that does not exist. Where adverts run, Google and its advertising partners may set cookies to choose adverts, to limit how often you see the same one, and to measure whether an advert was seen. Those cookies belong to them, their own policies describe them, and Google lists the ones it uses at policies.google.com/technologies/cookies and explains how it uses information from sites like this one at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
- Google shows its own certified consent message to visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and applies the choice made there. This site also sets Google's consent signals to denied by default for visitors there until they answer; Google's consent message is what applies your choice. If you refuse, the journal works exactly as it does now.
- Elsewhere, Google and its partners may use cookies to choose and measure adverts, under Google's own policies. Google honours Global Privacy Control signals from visitors in the US states it lists: Colorado, Connecticut, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Texas, Minnesota, New Jersey and Maryland, and also Delaware and Oregon.
- In the US states that give that right, Google adds a “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link at the foot of the pages that carry adverts. It opens Google's choice to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information for advertising.
What the journal keeps on your device instead
| hh.garden.v1 | Your plant list, the rooms and nicknames you gave, what you have ticked off, your hemisphere, and a copy of the care figures for those plants. Kept until you remove it. |
|---|---|
| hh.settings | Your temperature unit, the day your week starts on, the region you chose in the almanac, and whether you have dismissed the note about saving a copy. |
| hh.home.v1 | The jobs you have ticked off on the house maintenance list this year, and the year itself, so that the ticks clear when it changes. |
| hh.log.height | A number of pixels, so the page does not jump while your log is drawn. |
| hh.consent | No longer written or read. An earlier version of this site kept your answer to its own advertising banner here, and a browser that saw that version may still hold it. The banner has gone, and clearing site data removes the item. |
| The offline cache | Copies of pages from this site so the journal opens without a connection. Replaced when the site is updated, and cleared with your site data. |
| Cloudflare Web Analytics | Sets no cookie and writes nothing to your device. It counts page views only, with no way to identify you. |
Changing your mind
To change your advertising answer at any time, use the “Privacy and cookie settings” link. For visitors its message asks, Google adds it at the foot of the pages that carry adverts, and it reopens the message. This page and the privacy page carry no advertising script, so the link does not appear on them.
Clearing site data for houseandhedge.com in your browser removes everything above, including your plant list. If you want to keep your plants and clear the rest, save a copy from Settings first and restore it afterwards.
Your browser can also block third party cookies, which stops advertising cookies set from Google's own addresses. Google can also set cookies on this site's address, and in the regions where its message asks, those follow your answer to it. Nothing in the journal depends on them. The site works with storage blocked; the journal then runs for the session only.
More
Our privacy page covers the whole picture. Google's ad settings control what Google shows you, and aboutads.info offers the industry wide controls.