Gardening Guide

[_Annika_]

The gardening guide is looking great so far Carl. I found one typo that could possibly be just a marker you left for yourself to add more information later. It's under 'Starting Gardening & Skill Level Unlocks', final sentence 'm1As you gain levels in Gardening, you'll unlock new abilities:'

Also I would love to see a screenshot of one of those microscope cutting paintings.

Otherwise I love how easy it is to follow and look forward to seeing the plant and fertilizer lists. I will be living vicariously through the guide and other people's experiences until either a) my husband surprises me by buying it for me, or b) Christmas, because I have the frugal trait and will not spend the money on myself.

[Carl]

Thanks, I fixed that error. I'll throw in a pic of one of the paintings tomorrow. Basically they look like microscope slides, but you get random ones.

[Dellena]

I love that you can garden with flowers now!  My hopes is they eventually allow florists.  Great guide so far, Carl.  Friday can't come soon enough.

[Carl]

There is a pic of one of the microscope slides up on the gardening page, as per your request.

[LenaLJ]

Carl I have to say I really enjoy your guide for gardening, really well crafted and detailed. (I so want the game myself now!) With the details you provided I feel like I can jump into the game and do the gardening with ease because of your guidance.
And dreaming about if it is possible to splice all plants onto one, just for fun.

On another note, compared to your sims 3 guide, I would like to note, that I think you should write each skill guide the same way.
By that I mean, in the sims 3 you had some skills where the skill challenges where on a separate sub page and some where it was in the main page of the skill. That's just the example.
That was a bit confusing so I hope you will style them the same way this time.

[Playalot]

I've read that if you knock over your trash and don't pick it up immediately that it grows into a 'trash plant'. I'm only pre-loaded so I can't check but I thought I'd mention it so that someone could check it out for the gardening guide!

[Carl]

Likely need to get my Sim angry to kick over a trash can, as the option isn't available.

I just found a cow plant berry while fishing, so I guess that's one more off my list of plants for Gardening.

I will try to stick to the same format for all Guide articles. It is possible the plant list will be on its own page so that when I install comments and more worlds come available, people can contribute information on finding rares. However, I will keep all skill challenges and the like on the main page so that people aren't lost. I did this better toward the end of TS3 development, and learned a lot from my mistakes. I think you'll be OK with the format I plan for all skill/career guides.

[Carl]

And dreaming about if it is possible to splice all plants onto one, just for fun.

It definitely is possible, as I've reached 20 on one plant. However, yields are the same - about 10. So really, it's not that efficient or reliable. You will sometimes not get much from a plant. I love the fact that plants' yield grows over time, so harvesting right away isn't smart. But splicing all plants together on a perfect is definitely cool..

I added that you can get a Cow Plant by splicing Snapdragon (common herb) with Dragonfruit (which I haven't found so I can't test). Pam told me it was in the game manual that came with her physical copy. The Cheats page has also been updated with all the other cheats, which I found in the getting started guide.

Another thing I added to gardening is the quickest way to get Perfect plants. Use your starter gardening plants and keep evolving them. You can then get a high-level version of a new rare or uncommon plant from grafting, and plant the result to have a plant that doesn't need much evolving to get to perfect. As far as I can tell, plants never die, so you can use all existing plants to boost new ones... the common way to get plants is in the wild anyway, and they aren't usually harvestable.

[_Annika_]

There is a pic of one of the microscope slides up on the gardening page, as per your request.

Thank you Carl! That painting looks amazing! The Gardening section is really coming together. I can't wait until I eventually get to try it myself!

[Rekalty]

Excellent guide, I was wanting to give Gardening a try as soon as I were able (Oh the joys of silly not-worldwide-releases, still 7˝ hours until it unlocks...) seeing as it was what I enjoyed the most in previous games as well. One thing I would love to know, that wasn't really mentioned in your guide, in Sims 3, plants would die after being harvested a certain amount of times, is this also a thing in Sims 4? It became rather tedious, having to replant my entire garden after a while. (It was bad enough that you had to re-plant just to get the quality level up, but it sounds like they fixed that part at least.)

Again, most excellent guide, keep it up!

[kearn76]

I just harvested a "Trash Plant"!  My Sim dropped the trash instead of putting it in the bin one night, and didn't pick it up.  Next morning there was a sprout, so what the heck, I watered and weeded...a few days later, there was fruit!  Harvested it and sold it for 1 simolean each.

Karen

[jesirose]

I just harvested a "Trash Plant"!  My Sim dropped the trash instead of putting it in the bin one night, and didn't pick it up.  Next morning there was a sprout, so what the heck, I watered and weeded...a few days later, there was fruit!  Harvested it and sold it for 1 simolean each.

Karen

What did the fruit look like? I started a trash plant but the description said something about attracting bugs so I removed it.

[Mack]

Carl,

When a Sims visits Silven Glade (I think of it as my Pink World),  there is two fishing holes, your Sims can search for frogs, and as far I could determine the following plants: 4 Lily Flowers,  1 Bluebell Plant, 3 Basil bushes, 2 Strawberry Bushes, 1 Pear Tree, 5 Mushroom Plants and 2 Snapdragon flowers. They are all "Wild". 

As to the fishing my Sims fished at the fishing hole nearest to the tree's entrance and got the following type of fishes: Minnow, Koi, Tetra,  Treefish,  Betta, and Salmon. She did not fish by the waterfall as she was starving and I had to bring her back home.   I am sorry I did not noticed what kind of frog she got. Hope it helps a little bit with your guides.

[kearn76]

What did the fruit look like? I started a trash plant but the description said something about attracting bugs so I removed it.

They look like little trash bags!  I've used them for fertilizer, but I'm not sure that's very helpful.  Come to think of it, my plants did start getting bug infestations with the option to spray for bugs after that plant arrived.  The spray takes care of it, but I think maybe I will get rid of the trash plant, or at least move it away from the others...!

Karen

[khynnea]

Found a cherry tree spawn to add to the list. Thanks for the guide btw, was wondering if never finding fruit to harvest was a bug until I read the guide.

Behind Landgraab near the cliff dropoff, kitty corner from the tulip.



Oh. And for people trying to get trash plants to grow there are other ways to get piles of trash in the yard.

Get a cheap boom box radio, and leave it on outside in the garden to listen to while gardening. When it breaks, repair it. Then rummage through the pile of trash for extra parts. Leave the pile of trash to sprout.

And yes... piles of repair rubble can be moved anywhere on your lot. Move it outside, rummage, and then leave it overnight. I ended up with a pair of plants using the above, it took a night or a full day, time flies when you are hunting cherry trees and tulips.