The look and feel of GrowGuides.net is fairly pleasant, consistent and of course its green color scheme is fitting to its topic as well as the background leaves on the top and the beautiful green plant on the left. It's good to see advertisements adapted to the color scheme as well making them feel better integrated. The mix of orange on titles and borders works quite well with green and gives the site a more bright and positive feel. I also like the RSS button and its position beneath the plant image.

It's overall a neat package with not much to complain about, except perhaps the amount of ads on some pages especially where square ads end up stacked up on top of each other or disrupting the flow of the "share and enjoy" button bar.

I've noticed that the articles are tagged, but there is no tag cloud anywhere so this might be a valuable addition to make.

I think it would be a great idea to add images of plants, veggies etc. that are being talked about in each grow guide so that someone browsing the site can simultaneously learn to recognize or learn visually how each plant looks like. It would also probably add to the visual appeal of articles. This would of course have to be done in a consistent manner across articles and in a way that wont be disrupted by advertising.

I would like to make further suggestions for improvement, but that would probably involve a sort of a redesign that would make the site look more unique and impressive perhaps including such things as a real logo, additional styling of sidebars etc. However this works and is overall not a bad presentation.

Design Rating: 7/10

Focus:

The design style, domain name and titles of the site and articles are quite consistent in terms of conveying the theme and purpose of the site as obviously being about guides to growing.. stuff that can be grown I suppose (including, according to categories, flowers, fruits, plants, trees and vegetables). As such the site is pretty much left to be self-explanatory without any introduction or about page that could perhaps outline some highlights. But nevertheless the purpose is clear and quite singular.

Focus Rating: 10/10.

Content:

I've counted 71 articles so far about growing various flowers, fruits, plants, vegetables which is a pretty good database of information. Articles usually start with an introduction to the thing being grown including its highlights and properties. Some articles follow an outline starting with needed materials then procedures and location while others have numbered steps, albeit numbers are expressed in words which might actually have some advantages. Maybe a good thing would be to standardize on a single outline across all articles as a feature. I personally prefer the numbered approach because it gives more of a "step by step" dynamic to articles which is what most people might expect "guides" to offer.

From a sample I reviewed articles seem to be well written, somewhat engaging especially in the beginning with commentary on the plant being grown and continuing with relatively condensed set of instructions and information regarding the process involved and important preconditions such as the choice of location.

Content: 10/10

Almost black and white, but with a touch of green, HowToPlant.net's most redeeming feature is its header with a nice, artistic albeit black and white view of a tree in the field with birds in the sky. Nice, and relevant to the topic at hand. The whole site is designed to throw a shadow on its background making it seem like a realistic piece of paper held before you. Another nice tricks involves a main menu that is basically set in the grass. :)

Not bad, but there are things that could be better. There's something fishy about color choices of some elements. The search box lacks its own distinct background so it completely blends with the background of the sidebar. Just a simple white with a dark gray border wont hurt here. Furthermore, background color of info boxes with date and "posted by" info as well as category and comments info is still a little too close to the background color of the page. The simplest way to fix it is to have the border go around the entire box rather than just the top or changing the background color to pure white (#fff) or gray that is darker enough than the background of the page. Alternatively, there doesn't have to be a background color for these areas. Top border may be enough.

Everything else seems pretty decent.

Design Rating: 9/10

Focus:

I almost have nothing to say here. Everything is obvious. From the domain name, title, slogan to the titles of content. HowToPlant.net, indeed, tells you how to plant stuff that can be planted. Judging by categories we are shown how to plant fruits, trees and vegetables, how to make a garden and what are the planting techniques.

Focus Rating: 10/10

Content:

There is one category, "uncategorized", which is empty unless we can count a default wordpress "Hello World" entry. There is also an about page which is a default wordpress theme about page as well. It's probably clear what should be done with these. Remove the empty category from navigation (and the post) and fill up that about page with a nice pitch about the site.

With these little bloopers out of the way we can pay attention to what's great; 50 articles about planting (and I do assume this number will grow) in 5 relevant categories written in an usually focused, relatively brief articles split into nice sections. Articles also sometimes employ a more casual style that appeals to the reader and makes for a more relaxed while still enlightening reading. In fact judging from a sample (such as one about planting onion sets, and yes I'm among those who like onions), it's a pleasure to read (and I can almost smell onions).

Good work content wise, as usual, but with that little flop with the uncategorized category and the default about page which unfortunately tend to detract from the image of professionalism a bit. It's the only thing keeping it from a 10/10.

Content Rating: 9/10