Sprinklers?

[Lesleyxxx]

I know I've seen mention of sprinklers on this forum somewhere and now I can't find it, so I'll ask here. 

1] Do they water the growing garden plants for your sim or does he/she still need to water them?

2] Where are they? I can't find them in the buy mode, with or without buydebug. Are they special store content that I've missed? [can't find them in online store either]

3] If I got a butler would he water the plants daily or even take over the full garden care? If yes, is there anyway to ensure you get a butler with 'green thumb' trait?

I want to set up my next horse ranch with a garden, but my sim will need help looking after it as she's so busy with the horses all the time.
Thanks

[MoonsAreBlue]

I'm not 100% sure where it is, but I think it's in the Outdoors section and click the football picture. If you upgrade the sprinkler (level 5 in handiness) it will automatically go off every morning at 4 for an hour and then turn off at 5. However, if you don't upgrade it, you can manually turn it on or off, like you would a stereo (you don't have to have a sim walk over to it and turn it on).

[MomOfMany]

It is in the outdoor section I believe it is outdoor activities? This is when it's separated by rooms! And I always turned the sprinklers on and then just left them on. I know you are not supposed to but that is what I always did. Never noticed a difference in my bills either not to say it wasn't there I just never noticed it. And as for the butler sorry I have no idea maybe someone else will chime in on that one!
Edited: forgot to answer the first question but yes it does the watering therefore you don't have to. So if you have the sprinkler on your sim will not need to water the garden.

[Ricalynn]

As far as I can tell, butlers do not garden.  They will cook, clean, repair and handle babies but not garden.  Oh and they drink lots of juice from the juice bar.   

Sprinklers are great for gardeners especially if they're upgraded.   You can do as MoonsAreBlue and MomofMany said and find them in the last tab under outdoor activities.  It's a little yellow thing and it costs about 95 simoleons.   You can also find them in the sort by function as a miscellaneous appliance.   

In order for them to water your garden plants, the plants have to be within the green squares around the sprinkler.

[Hosfac]

1] Do they water the growing garden plants for your sim or does he/she still need to water them?

As stated, yes they do although they are much more effective with the level 5 handiness upgrade.  However, they auto-water at 5am.  If they came on at 4 it wouldn't do much in the way of good since the plants themselves don't start updating until 5. 

2] Where are they? I can't find them in the buy mode, with or without buydebug. Are they special store content that I've missed? [can't find them in online store either]

They are base game items and are listed under "outdoor entertainment" (since Sims can and will play in them...typically more than you'd like lol).  While there might seem to be some wisdom in listing them under "appliances," I don't believe you will find them there.

3] If I got a butler would he water the plants daily or even take over the full garden care? If yes, is there anyway to ensure you get a butler with 'green thumb' trait?

I will confirm that a butler will not water or in any way tend plants, and even with sprinklers, the garden will need to be weeded, harvested and replanted at some point.  So if you have a particularly large garden on your horse ranch, it might be a good idea to ask another Sim to move in and have them take care of the garden exclusively.  You could also make that sim "Neat" and give them the one-click house cleaning ability as well.  A "hired hand" of this nature would allow you to automate your garden and housekeeping with 1 click each, giving you the time you need to focus on caring for the horses. 

[SimPoseyYum]

In regular Buy Mode, you can find sprinklers under Sort by Function > Appliances > Miscellaneous Appliances (the 3 dots tab).  If you Sort by Location, you go to Outdoor > Outdoor Activities.  They will cover a 16-square area, I believe.  As far as I've been able to tell, you cannot overwater plantings, so if you really want your gardeners to water by hand (just to give them more skilling), you won't hurt anything even if your sprinklers are on auto-water.

I believe you can upgrade to auto-water at level 4 handiness (not level 5).

[Hosfac]

In regular Buy Mode, you can find sprinklers under Sort by Function > Appliances > Miscellaneous Appliances (the 3 dots tab).  If you Sort by Location, you go to Outdoor > Outdoor Activities.  They will cover a 16-square area, I believe.  As far as I've been able to tell, you cannot overwater plantings, so if you really want your gardeners to water by hand (just to give them more skilling), you won't hurt anything even if your sprinklers are on auto-water.

I suppose it's possible, because I always have difficulty finding them when I sort by function (Edit:  That's exactly where they're at, and is exactly why I have trouble finding them.  How curiously inconsistent).  And no, there is no way to over-water plants:  your Sims will (or at least did) go and play in the sprinklers with every idle, waking moment of their lives...to the point to where you'd expect the lot would turn into swampland lol.

However, if you have auto-sprinklers you'll never get the chance to water the plants.  You can't water them if they don't need it, and the auto sprinklers come on at 5am promptly...which is the time that the plants start updating.  If you watch your garden, the sprinklers come on and one by one the plants that require watering will dry out and immediately turn green again.  But if you have a decent sized garden, the experience to be gained by watering is relatively insignificant to the time saved.  If you maintain one of each type of base game plant, you'll max gardening in a couple of weeks just from weeding and harvesting.  This makes getting started with a brand new gardener difficult, so it would be a good idea to put at least some of the sprinklers into family inventory until weeding plants becomes an option.

While I'm about 50% sure on the handiness thing, you may be right about it being level 4.  My handy sims are usually well past 5 by the time they get around to upgrading sprinklers lol.

[SimPoseyYum]

...However, if you have auto-sprinklers you'll never get the chance to water the plants.  You can't water them if they don't need it...

Ahhh, interesting.  After my first go-round with gardening, I now usually have a handi-person upgrade before the first sprout is planted, so I wasn't really aware of that.  Now that you mention it, I don't recall getting the watering option with my more recent gardeners.  The reason I mentioned it in the above post is that we sometimes get the "wish" to water (I generally r-click that wish), so I assumed there would be an option. 

You're right, of course, that the amount of skilling you get from watering is minimal, but every now and then, that's all you need.  When you don't have a weed to pluck or a seed to plant, when every tree and shrub has been fed and you're still at 99.99% of level...  What, that only happens to me? 

[AbrahamC]

If you upgrade the sprinkler (level 5 in handiness) it will automatically go off every morning at 4 for an hour and then turn off at 5.

However, they auto-water at 5am.

Correction, both of you are partially right. They water from 4-7 every morning. (I do a LOT of gardening) the plants "grow" at 5 AM

[Lesleyxxx]

Thanks for all the info    Unfortunately they caused me bigger problems that they solved so I removed them again. Yep my sim was spending all her time playing with so instead of plants being neglected it was the horses and house and everything else being neglected.  We Can't have that LOL.

Oh well it was a good thought that just doesn't work well.

[Hosfac]

Unfortunately they caused me bigger problems that they solved so I removed them again.

I've found that an easy "fix" is to enclose the sprinklers themselves in a fence that prevents movement with no gate.  While this doesn't stop them from trying, it does initiate the "I can't get there" dance and vocalization, so you can intervene and have them do something constructive.

[MarianT]

A couple of times when I've used sprinklers, I've moved them into family inventory during the day and put them out to water when everyone's asleep. Of course, you have to remember to do that.

[Lesleyxxx]

That's a neat tip, I'll have to remember that.