The Sims 3 Tips - Gardening and you(r sims)

The sims 3 has a much more relaxed feel to gardening in terms of where you can place your produce. Instead of being limited to set patches of garden, you can plant anywhere in anything. I really like the freedom this game gives you, even in little everyday tasks.

Attending classes and reading books help your sim increase his or her gardening. You can also plant seeds and tend to the garden to gain more skill points. If a sim is has a "green thumb" then they are automatically rewarded with one gardening skill point to start off with. Gardening can be a great way to earn a bit of money - just take what you grow to the grocery store and sell it there! Sometimes, you'll get little tasks as well linked to gardening from neighbors who don't know as much as your green thumbed sim, so take those when you can!

As your garden grows, you'll notice the different plants take different shapes. The trees will start out as tiny little sticks, but in a few days time they're towering over your sims! My sim planted an apple tree, and in maybe 5-6 days, it had grown over his head. Right now, he's only at level 5 gardening so I'll keep working on it!

Gardening is available for teens, young adults, adults, and elders.

With each level you gain, you're granted a special thing you can do with your plants. For example, at level 6 you can "revive plant" so you can bring a plant from death's door to full life once more.

You can find seeds outside, while on a walk, or you can buy them from the grocery store. If you made your sim live in Riverblossom, there is a community garden where you can harvest seeds (or at least, that's what I was told)

When you find seeds, you can plant them to see what kind of plant they are. Once that plant has grown, you'll be able to recognize the seeds you see on the ground as long as you've grown them.

What I did, as suggested by the sims 3 prima guide, was I made my sim handy so he could have the sprinkler on auto-sprinkle .. but I never did do that. I actually like watching him tend to his garden, so I'm regretting the wasted trait. At least my sim can have auto-cleaning objects now, which will help out since his wife is popping out babies left and right. (Oh god, why can't I stop myself?)

Only sims with the insane or green thumb trait can talk to plants, it's no longer "badge" related.

Here my sim is starting out his garden. The little apple tree is covered in weeds :(!

Handy Tip - Want to see ghosts? Go to the graveyard! Want to get chased by bears? Go INSIDE the graveyard's mausoleum.