Gardening Skill Guide

One great skill for your Sims to master is the gardening skill. This skill is used to produce many plants that you can later splice together to create other more exotic plants. For example the Strawberry and Snapdragon plants splice together make the Dragon Fruit plant. Then you take a Dragon Fruit splice and graft that to a Strawberry plant you will get the elusive Cowplant berry. This is of course used to grow a cowplant, every Sims household can use a Cowplant, for the pesky visitor who just won’t leave?

To get started on your Sims gardening skill you have two choices either go around the area and gather different plants by harvesting the already mature fruits, Vegetables or flowers. Or you can buy a planter box/pot then click on it and choose buy seeds, you can also buy seeds via the computer. These seeds packets don’t need to be planted in a planter box/pot they can go directly into the ground. When you purchase the seed packets they will automatically show up in your inventory simply click on the packet to open and reveal what seeds you got.

The following plant types are available in the seed packs:

• Starter Flowers: Blue Bells, Chrysanthemum, and Daisy
• Starter Fruits: Apple, Grapes, and Plantain
• Starter Herbs: Basil, and Parsley
• Starter Vegetables: Carrot, Mushroom, and Spinach

Plants can be grown in the planter boxes or Gardening Pots. Gardening Pots can be used both indoors and out but only hold one plant. Planter Boxes can only be used outdoors and hold up to four plants or one tree. You can also plant directly into the ground. When ready to plant open your inventory, click and drag the plant to the pot/box/ground. When you click on a plant and choose to plant it your Sims will plant all plants placed in that area. Then you will need to water them, keep a close eye on your plants as they do need lots of attention.

The first seed packets you can buy are Starter fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs. Later you will be able to buy Farmer versions of these seed packets. Hovering your mouse over a plant will show you the progress of it’s evolution by way of a flower with petals as well as it’s health. If the flower is green your plant is happy and healthy. However if it is red, orange or yellow act quickly as that plant is in need of some tender loving care. When you hover the mouse over the plants and the flowers in the box that opens has all the petals it’s time to Evolve that plant to a new level. This is also indicated by a “sparkle” around the plant. This sparkle will also happen when the plant’s fruits or flowers are mature and ready to harvest. When you’re ready to Evolve or Harvest that plant just click on the plant and choose the option from the pie menu that opens up.

The following interactions are available when leveling up in the Gardening Skill:

• Level 1 Gardening Skill – Sims can Plant, Water, Weed, and Harvest plants. Exploring town to harvest and plant more collectibles is ideal for increasing your Sim’s Gardening Skill.
• Level 2 Gardening Skill – Sims can now “Evolve” plants every few days to increase their quality level. Evolving a plant produces higher quality harvestables that are higher in value depending on the level of quality. The following quality levels can be achieved with plants: Normal, Nice, Very Nice, Good, Great, Excellent, Superb, Magnificent, Pristine, and Perfect.
• Level 4 Gardening Skill – Sims can now “Talk to Plants” to fulfill their social need and increase the gardening skill.
• Level 5 Gardening Skill – Sims can now “Fertilize” plants to help them “Evolve” faster. You can use flowers, fruits, herbs, vegetables, and fish as fertilizer.
• Level 6 Gardening Skill – Other Sims may compliment your garden which results in pleasant conversations buff for your Sims.
• Level 7 Gardening Skill – Sims can now “Take Cuttings”, “Graft” and “Tend” plants. They can also purchase “Farmer Seed Packs” on the computer.
• Level 8 Gardening Skill – Sims can now “Re-shape” overgrown Bonsai Trees for §50 Simoleons, and “Revive” plants for §100 Simoleons. However this will not work on the Cowplant.
• Level 9 Gardening Skill – Sims are now more efficient at care-taking of plants. Sims water plants and weed faster.
• Level 10 Gardening Skill – Sims are now even more efficient at care-taking of plant life. Randomly you will get plants that you wouldn’t normally get. Take advantage of this and buy seed packets for “Farmer Seeds.”

Fertilizers

At Level 3 of the gardening skill you will be able to Fertilize your garden. Higher level fish are the very best fertilizers you can use. However during the lower levels of gardening you can use other plants you have harvested to fertilize. So be sure to increase your Fishing Skill as well. To Fertilize simply choose it from the pie options and then choose a plant or fish to fertilize your garden.  Plants that are fertilized will not grow faster necessarily, but jump in quality faster. Getting to Perfect Quality Plants quickly means using the Fertilize option as often as it is available.

Collect Microscope Sample

You can make money with Gardening by investing in a Microscope which costs $1630. Click on a Plant and select the option to take a Microscope Sample. This will give you a slide of the plant that will give you the ability to analyze it with the Microscope. You can then create a print from this sample that can be worth hundred of Simoleons. That should help pay for the Microscope pretty quickly. As a bonus it will help increase your Sims Logic skill level as well.

I hope that this will help your Sims gain more insight and skill in the garden. After they are maxed out in the gardening skill it’s time to tackle the Herbalism Skill. Until then Happy Simming.