Sheltered gardens experiments

[Playalot]

@oshizu   No, not all ten...just all the types of herbs that grow in the campsite area.  Which I think is 4 from memory, the other four come from the area with the waterfall fishing spot (National Park) and then of course there are the 2 types of mushrooms which sims can find in the same area and/or the hermits area (Deep Woods).

And yeah, I'm quite sick and tired of constant rain/or cloudy days in my games so I now just use twistedmexis's weather cheats...I've even grown sick and tired of the weather machine, easier to just paste in a clear weather event cheat.

I understand the logic behind the changes @scoed doesn't mean that I like it in my game. Besides, I always take my sims to Granite Falls in the Winter now as it seems more fitting to see it snowy than in summer. Obviously if I wanted to complete the aspiration I would visit in spring/summer. The argument that 'such and such happens in real life' doesn't really wash for me when talking about TS4 and while plant behavior might be more 'life like' with these changes, Grim reaping my sims dead souls is not and so on. There are more examples of fantasy than real life when thinking about TS4 and so thankfully there are some great mods out there that allow players the freedom to play this game as we want to and not be stuck with how the devs are dictating us to play.

[Joria]

@Playalot :  I agree completely.  All those grey skies have made the game gloomy and depressing, not to mention the hassles with gardening.  Do you have a link to twistedmexis' cheats?  I would definitely use the weather one.  So far my main option has been escape to San Selvadora but that can limit you in some ways.  Since I live in a state where rain and cloudy is a huge component of the weather, with only two months usually totally clear skies, (and therefor major forest fires because it gets too dry), having my Sims have to deal with it is more of RL than I want in a game.
   My sheltered gardening has become totally indoors in the sub-basement of my house.  This is also my "focus area".  The only issue I have with it is how often my Sims get stung by bees, much more so in the confined space than when it was all outdoors.  My next step is going to be making it not only a place to grow and harvest fruits and veggies, and do focus stuff, but turn it into more like an arboretum.  Decorative and a nice place to sit and read or walk through.  Wish I could make a running stream of water there but my building skills are not up to it.  Here are some screenies, (hopefully) of my garden of eatin and Patchy.

[Playalot]

Your plants are looking lovely and green @Joria    That is one of the things I miss most now as with Seasons, as you know, plants will only look green like that in bulk, all at once, if they are sheltered and it is summer.

Link to Twistedmexi's Cheats

Does building up a positive relationship with the bees stop or lesser the rate of stings from the bees? It has with my gardener but he tends to them at least 3 or 4 times a day which is easy as he is a vampire with the supernatural speed perk which means he can just race off to interact with them in a jiffy.

[Joria]

@Playalot :  Thanks for the link and the compliment.  This underground garden of mine is going like gangbusters but boy is it a lot of work.  It basically fills up a 40x30 lot, with a bit of room taken out for the pool,  a science lab and a few other "focus" areas.  I still don't have all my plants missing bell peppers, herbalism herbs and a couple of rare flowers.  Strangely enough I got two death flower seeds so had I been doing a challenge I'd have it made.  My money trees have made me wealthy enough it's almost time to hire a butler and go have some fun because my poor Sims have done nothing but grind, grind, grind.  (They maxed out several aspirations each.)
   Growing them indoors with so many of them I haven't really noticed any slowing down of them increasing in quality and they produce more than I can keep up with.  It seems I no sooner harvest all then I have to go back and do it all over again.  Doing them inside has made gardening fun again.  I highly recommend it.
   Bonding with the bees does seem to lessen the amount of stings my Sims get, but only with the one who bonds the most.  The other two are regularly stung no matter what they are doing.  One in particular, the one I did a screenie of, is always being attacked.  He's kind of funny for a big macho guy, (maxed out body building), because he whimpers and cries and begs them to stop clearly saying "no, no, no!" over and over as he gets swarmed.  It also seems, that the ones I send out to fetch a gift are the ones who stay calm more.
I have 8 hives at the moment so it's a lot to keep up with.  (I'll downsize everything once I have them at perfect.)
    I only use growfruit for fertilizer as it was a hassle to keep big, fresh fish and then find it in the queue.  My growfruit is at Magnificent so does very well.
    My Sims all have Never Weary, Steel Bladder, and some have Seldom Hungry and Antiseptic so except for times they must be at work, (one is  in Culinary, one a Scientist and one a stay at home Gardener), they are pretty much stuck in that ginormous garden so the bees are constantly being rotated for care.

[Playalot]

Having so many bees will be part of why your plants evolve so quickly. Which is a good thing. I use any perfect plant as fertilizer although the salmon from the fish vendor in Brindelton Bay makes better fertilizer - this is because the fish never decays, just a weird quirk of the game but any fish from the vendor doesn't decay. Admittedly, yes, fresh caught large value fish is the best fertilizer but I can't be bothered to go through the loading screen needed to get my fish home and used before the decay sets in.

Currently I am only collecting plants to complete the collection as the goal for my current sims is to complete every collection. Something I've done before but weirdly enough not with the same household for some time. My sims aren't allowed to use any 'easy' methods, so no seed packets and so on, no going to the festivals and taking cuttings and/or harvesting. Although I'm being sorely tested with the bird of paradise.

Side note: did you know that you can find plants, including bonsai buds, roses, tulips etc, under the gift tab on your sims phone?

[Joria]

Second go around with the gardening thing.  My goal is single female Sim who can do it all.  So far struggling but she's making progress.  The garden is awesome but not as nice or as complete as the first one.  I started all my seeds outdoors in spring and moved the spring plants in just before summer started.  Now all my plants are inside, and it's only autumn.  I made a huge basement to accommodate them and surrounded the house with a one square wide pool to bring daylight in.  Unnecessary but cool effect.  So far missing quite a few of the rares and uncommons.  The very first time I played I got green peppers at Granite Falls but not ever again with subsequent Sims and buying multiple packets of seeds hasn't produced them yet either.  What I keep getting from Patchy's pockets is magical beans!  What's up with those?  And what's the point of bonsai buds besides growing a bonsai you can pay to turn into one you can sculpt?  Somehow one of my Sims managed to harvest Money Tree fruit, but not this one.  My club, Garden Gnomes helps a lot but I have to make sure to harvest BEFORE they come over to help garden or they snag all the produce!  I like having my garden inside.  No more worries about over heating or freezing while I garden!  Besides, they are so lush and green!
    I don't have them planted according to season since it doesn't matter for sheltered  plants, but rather according to type.  All flowers in one section, edibles in another, and herbals in another with a perimeter of fruit trees.  Grafting seems to work well and the production is abundant.  No more sad looking plants outside.  On that note, I HATE my ornamental landscaping plants going all ugly in the fall and winter!!!  Trying to use enlarged indoor plants instead. 

[oshizu]

@Joria
I've been following your gardening experiments with great interest, especially since my legacy household already had a near-perfect garden when Seasons released.
Like you, I also prefer an indoor greenhouse--just don't have the energy to be switching the plants indoors/outdoors, though I really like @Playalot's idea about a four-part roof.
The bonsai is great for boosting gardening skill. Or you can examine a sculpted bonsai (forgot which shape) to get a Focused mood.

Wasn't sure what you meant about "Somehow one of my Sims managed to harvest Money Tree fruit, but not this one."
I thought the only way to acquire a Money Tree seed was by spending satisfaction points?

Also, I'd love to see a shot of your latest garden set-up with the light wells.

[Joria]

@oshizu :  I got a fruit from one of the seed packets, rare I believe, and got one from Patchy's pockets.  The only option when you are harvesting is to sell the fruit, but one of my Sims, while I wasn't watching of course, who was helping "harvest all", wound up harvesting some of the fruit from the trees I had so wound up with 4 money trees!!!  That was not in my current attempt.  Only way for me to get one was spend my points which I did right away.  Hard choice that was!!  Wait to get more points and buy Never Weary or get a tree.  I got a tree~~!  It was sheer luck that first time just like getting green peppers at the kiosk in Granite Falls was.  Several tries later and that was the ONLY time I got green peppers there. 
  Will do some screen shots of the current garden with light wells.  It's so pretty I'm considering trying to figure out how to make it a sit in and contemplate park but the bees would definitely be a major deterrent.  Hate the bees!!!  Did you know they will even follow you on to other floor levels just to sting you? grrrrr.  Oh, and they sting Patchy too!

[Joria]

@oshizu :  Photos you asked for of the garden I'm currently playing

[oshizu]

Thanks for sharing your screenshots @Joria ! 
Your downstairs garden is surprising spacious! (I might have giggled at the absence of bee boxes.)
I count 18 garden planters for non-tree plants plus one garden pot and one of each tree type.
Does that mean that you aren't splicing your plants anymore?

I have no long-term experience growing a post-Seasons garden from scratch.
Over the short term, though, I did get dragonfruit (but no cowberries) from splicing.
I probably lack the patience to calculate how to splice plants of similar season and quality together....

[Joria]

@oshizu:   I'm far too impatient to deal with splicing and only do the obligatory 3 for each gardener Sim.  I try for things like dragonfruit rather that grapes because I almost always get grapes in seeds.
    I actually don't have enough garden planters or the single fruit tree ones yet to complete an entire collection.  I don't worry about trash fruit, I just keep one plant in inventory since they are useless.  I still need several, normal earth plants and all the alien ones but I haven't bothered to count which ones I need.  The bane of my existence so far is green peppers, (in rl as well!).  No matter how many packets of the season seeds I've bought nary a pepper to be found!
   As for space, in my last file I did like three floors of house with a much smaller footprint but all that up and down stairs was a nuisance.  So, so far I have three levels, main level is kitchen/dining/lounge with one bedroom and two bathrooms, second story is gym and three more en-suite bedrooms plus a long all purpose room.  The basement is my "focus" room out of necessity due to the garden.  So my work bench, flower bench, a computer station, etc. is there.  At the moment it is about a third of the length it will ultimately be as I will need a general storage area and a science lab, and maybe a "bakery".  Not sure about that last one!  Also would like some sort of fun area with some sport thing or games in it.  Eventually I may cave and have my single Sim marry just so she can have nooboos to raise but not sure about that.  Might just marry off the roommate.  (I'm rather anti-men atm and same sex is not for me or my Sims.).  My Sims do not whoohoo outside of marriage or before marriage, and while she could adopt a baby or older I like the whole process of pregnancy/birth for them, and I'm romantic enough to like the whole wedding thing.
   In many ways I'm a bit of a cheap skate in my game so I fish for cowberries, violins, showers, etc. and get a big kick out of getting crazy things like that fishing.  I always have a ton of cowberries and pomegranate just from fishing.  When my Sims are bored or kind of depressed they either paint, play and instrument or fish, usually fish.  I don't usually use the fish for fertilizer because it's a pain keeping them and sorting through the list to find them so I just stick to glowfruit, which is why I plant 3 to 4 trees of glowfruit.  I just really hate the ugly plants that happen with Seasons so from now on it's indoor gardening for me.  Those plants are way too depressing!

[Sykoman]

I just added 2x12 a room with 2 floors(for trees) and put a bigger roof on it then hammered the side walls.

And I just discovered sheltered effect when I try to protect bees from weather effects while they are pollinating XD.