Gardening (The Sims 3)

Gardening

A Sim gardening.

For gardening in other games, see Gardening.

Gardening is a skill in The Sims 3. The skill is augmented by the Green Thumb trait, and the Super Green Thumb lifetime reward. It involves (as with gardening in real life and the previous Sims games) the planting, growing and harvesting of various plants that Sims can find within the game. Unlike the previous Sims games, The Sims 3 gardening has been much expanded upon, introducing many real-life plants and several fictional species such as the 'Life Fruit', 'Flame Fruit', and 'Plasma Fruit'.

Some expansion packs include more varieties of plant collections. Some of the plants can be used as ingredients for Nectar Making and Mixology, with the key ingredients for Nectar Making being the grapes from Champs Les Sims. With Ambitions, Sims can register as a self-employed gardener. Gardening can be profitable by selling the harvested produce from the inventory, supermarket, or consignment store.

Statistics

• Number Planted
• Unique Plants Planted
• Items Harvested
• Perfect Items Harvested
• Unknown Seeds Planted
• Best Harvestable
• Money Earned
• Largest Money Bag Harvested

Challenges

Master Planter

A Master Planter must plant 19 types of plant that can be planted in the game. Once you have mastered the varieties you will be able to reduce weed growth significantly on future plants.

Botanical Boss

Botanical Bosses must harvest at least 75 Perfect fruits and vegetables. After so many Perfect harvastables, the plants of Botanical Bosses almost never die from neglect.

Master Farmer

Master Farmers have harvested at least 650 fruits and vegetables. The plants of Master Farmers remain watered and fertilized longer, meaning their gardens are more efficient.

Abilities

Level	Ability
1	Plant Common seeds
2	Weed garden
3	Fertilize garden
5	Plant Uncommon seeds
6	Revive plants (with Green Thumb trait)
7	Plant Rare and Special seeds
8	Plant Cheese and Egg plants (via Skill Opportunities)
9	Plant Burger Patty and Steak plants (via Skill Opportunities)
10	Plant Omni Plant seeds (via Skill Opportunities)

Plants

Plants and seeds can be planted at home. Seeds can be found on the ground throughout the town or upon reaching level 1, while plants can be found from the supermarket, vegetable stand, or harvesting from wild plants.

Image	Plant	Rarity	Value (in §)	Max Produce	Fertilizer		Nectar Value	EP
					Value	Days
	Tomato	Common	3	20	5	4	-	&BG
	Apple	Common	4	40	5	4	3	&BG
	Grapes	Common	4	15	5	3	3	&BG
	Lettuce	Common	3	15	5	4	-	&BG
	Onion	Uncommon	7	25	5	6	-	&BG
	Potato	Uncommon	7	15	5	5	-	&BG
	Watermelon	Uncommon	9	10	10	5	7	&BG
	Lime	Uncommon	9	40	5	6	7	&BG
	Bell Pepper	Rare	12	15	15	4	-	&BG
	Garlic	Rare	15	30	15	6	-	&BG
	Life Fruit	Special	25	12	25	6	22	&BG
	Death Flower	Special	0	2	-200	4	-	&BG
	Money Tree	Special	Varies	10,000	-	-	-	&BG
	Flame Fruit	Special	18	20	15	4	18	&BG
	Egg	Special	7	15	5	4	-	&BG
	Cheese	Special	5	15	5	4	-	&BG
	Patty	Special	16	15	5	4	-	&BG
	Steak	Special	20	15	15	4	-	&BG
	Omni Plant	Special	Varies	25	-	-	-	&BG
	Renoit Grapes	Common	4	30	5	3	5	&EP01
	Cherimola Blan Grapes	Common	4	30	5	3	5	&EP01
	Pomegranate	Uncommon	8	50	7	3	6	&EP01
	Plum	Uncommon	7	50	8	3	7	&EP01
	Avornalino Grapes	Uncommon	7	30	10	3	8	&EP01
	Meloire Grapes	Uncommon	8	30	10	3	10	&EP01
	Pomelo	Rare	15	50	12	5	12	&EP01
	Cherries	Rare	12	50	15	4	9	&EP01
	Gralladina Fran Grapes	Rare	10	30	15	3	12	&EP01
	Cranerlet Nuala Grapes	Rare	13	30	15	3	16	&EP01
	Plasma Fruit	Rare	20	2	20	4	18	&EP03
	Carrot	Uncommon	7	20	5	6	-	&EP05
	Banana	Rare	7	50	5	6	0	&EP06
	Mandrake Root	Common	6	20	5	3	-	&EP07
	Porcinis	Common	10	30	10	4	-	&EP07
	Red Toadstool	Common	20	30	10	6	-	&EP07
	Red Valerian Root	Common	6	20	5	3	-	&EP07
	White Caps	Common	5	30	5	6	-	&EP07
	Wolfsbane Flower	Common	13	20	10	3	-	&EP07
	Mycenas	Uncommon	33	15	12	5	-	&EP07
	Spotlight Mushroom	Uncommon	38	15	15	4	-	&EP07
	Ghost Chili	Rare	22	15	15	3	-	&EP07
	Glow Orbs	Rare	64	15	20	6	-	&EP07
	Truffles	Rare	42	30	20	4	-	&EP07
	Pumpkin	Uncommon	9	10	10	5	-	&EP08
	Cortado Bean	Common	22	20	10	5	-	&EP09
	Kona Bean	Common	9	20	10	5	-	&EP09
	Maui Bean	Common	11	20	10	5	-	&EP09
	Midnight Bean	Common	12	20	10	5	-	&EP09
	Red Berry Bean	Common	50	20	10	5	-	&EP09
	Basil	Common	15	15	10	5	-	&EP09
	Ginseng	Common	13	15	10	5	-	&EP09
	Peppermint	Common	12	15	10	5	-	&EP09
	Lavender	Uncommon	17	15	10	5	-	&EP09
	Cinnamon	Uncommon	16	15	10	5	-	&EP09
	Licorice	Uncommon	13	15	10	4	-	&EP09
	Greenleaf	Uncommon	19	15	10	5	-	&EP09
	Sweet Grass	Uncommon	9	15	10	5	-	&EP09
	Wonderpetal	Uncommon	12	15	10	5	-	&EP09
	Buzzberry	Uncommon	18	15	10	5	-	&EP09
	Chamomile	Rare	29	15	10	5	-	&EP09
	Bumbleleaf	Rare	26	15	10	5	-	&EP09
	Forbidden Fruit	Special		1			-	&EP09
	Lemon	Common	4	15			4	&Store
	Purple Eggplant	Common	4				-	&Store

Notes

• The sale values of each plant depends on its quality. The higher the quality, the more valuable it will be, based on its base value:
  • Normal: 100%
  • Nice: 110%
  • Very Nice: 150%
  • Great: 200%
  • Excellent: 250%
  • Outstanding: 300%
  • Perfect: 400%
• Max Produce is the maximum produce the plant can bear before being barren.
• Nectar Value is the value of the produce when used as a single nectar ingredient.

Quality

Harvested produce has a quality ranging from horrifying, putrid, foul, bad, normal, nice, very nice, great, excellent, outstanding, and perfect. Higher quality produce is worth more for selling and will have increased strength as fertilizer. The quality of the harvested produce roughly corresponds to the quality of the plants. Thus, an excellent apple tree will usually bear excellent apples, however there is a chance of harvesting higher quality produce.

Produce can be used for the following:

• Cooking ingredients
• Nectar Making ingredients
• Mixology ingredients
• Alchemy ingredients
• Science samples
• Fishing baits

Fertilizer

Fertilizer can be used to increase the plant speed growth. Fertilizer does not affect the quality of the plant or produce. Most ingredients can be used to fertilize plants, as well as horse fertilizer from the horse stall. Below is the list of fertilizers, the time the effect lasts, and the grade.

Fertilizer	Grade	Time (Days)	Relative Potency
Reviving Sprinkle	40	5	200
Life Fruit	25	6	150
Angelfish, Sea Sludge	25	4	100
Vampire Fish, Mummy Fish, Dragon Fish	25	3	75
Glow Orbs	20	6	120
Vampire Fruit, Truffles, Shark, Ninja Starfish	20	4	80
Lobster	20	3	60
Garlic	15	6	90
Steak, Bell Pepper, Flame Fruit, Cherries, Spotlight Mushroom, Red Herring, Tragic Clownfish, Siamese Catfish, Piranha, Blowfish	15	4	60
Gralladina Fran Grapes, Cranerlet Nuala Grapes, Unicorn Fertilizer, Ghost Chili, Sewer Trilobite, Linckia Starfish, Eel	15	3	45
Pomelo, Mycenas	12	5	60
Salmon, Black Goldfish, Swordfish	12	3	36
Red Toadstools	10	6	60
Watermelon, Pumpkin, Ginseng, Sweet Grass, Cinnamon, Basil, Lavender, Peppermint, Wonderpetal, Chamomile, Bumbleleaf, Greenleaf, Licorice, Buzzberry, Kona Bean, Midnight Bean, Cortado Bean, Red Berry Bean, Maui Bean	10	5	50
Porcinis, Minnow, Jellyfish, Fairy Damsel	10	4	40
Avornalino Grapes, Meloire Grapes, Horse Fertilizer, Wolfsbane, Tuna, Sea Bat Starfish, Octopus, Squid	10	3	30
Plum, Rainbow Trout	8	3	24
Pomegranate	7	3	21
Onion, Lime, Carrot, Banana, White Caps	5	6	30
Potato	5	5	25
Cheese, Burger Patty, Egg, Lettuce, Tomato, Apple	5	4	20
Grapes, Renoit Grapes, Cherimola Blan Grapes, Mandrake, Red Valerian, Anchovy, Goldfish, Alley Catfish, Crocodile, Crawfish, Frog, Doitsu Koi, Kawarimono Koi, Ochiba Koi, Tancho Koi, Snail, Kissing Gourami, Toad, Luminous Salamander, Sea Urchin, Anemone, Sea Polyp, Hermit Crab, Seahorse	5	3	15
Deathfish	-200	4	-800

Depending on the quality of the fertilizer, the value and length can be modified. The fertilizer value will be multiplied according to the multipliers, and the length will be added with extra days. Furthermore, completing the Master Farmer skill challenge will benefit Sims by giving additional 2 days for any fertilizers.

Fertilizer modifiers based on its quality

Fertilizer Quality	Value Multiplier	Extra Days
Horrifying	0.6	-
Putrid	0.7	-
Foul	0.8	-
Bad	0.9	-
Normal	1.0	-
Nice	1.1	-
Very Nice	1.2	-
Great	1.4	+1
Excellent	1.6	+1
Outstanding	1.8	+1
Perfect	2.0	+2

Tips

Sprinkler area of effect.

• Sims can use sprinkler to water plants in a 5x5 area. It can be turned on and run indefinitely. Sims can upgrade the sprinkler with Auto-Water so it will run between 4 AM and 7 AM, but it has to be turned off first.
• The harvester can be used to harvest multiple plants at once.
• Selling the produce in the supermarket is worth 10% higher than selling from inventory, and even more if sold in consignment store.
• Sims can plant indoors with the pot planters from Supernatural.
• Unicorns and fairies can use their abilities to grow up the plants one level higher, up to their harvestable state.
• The following traits are suggested to help with Gardening:
  • The Green Thumb trait increases the quality of plant produce when they plant a seed or harvest produce.
  • The Loves the Outdoors trait will create a positive moodlet when Sim is outdoors.
  • The Eco-friendly trait will create a positive moodlet when gardening.
  • The Gatherer trait increases the quality of produce harvested from seeds the Sim plants.

Notes

• Plants will turn to dead state if they are neglected from wilting state. Sims with Green Thumb can revive plants with 70% chance of success, while failure attempt will destroy the plant.^{[clarification needed]} Money trees cannot be revived as they'll explode upon their death.
• Plants will turn to barren state once they reach their maximum amount of produce. Barren plants cannot be revived.
• Fertilizers and weeds don't affect the plant quality. They only affect the growth time of the plant: fertilizer shortens the time, while the weed reduces the time.
• Plants are immune from meteor impact, but the produce will be destroyed.
• Watch out for zombies as they will eat the plants and set them to dead state. Keep the plants indoor to keep them away from zombies.
• During and near winter, plants will remain dormant until it's mid-spring. During the dormant period, Sims cannot tend the garden, but they can still harvest if the plants are already in harvest state.
• There is a glitch that prevents Sims from ordering Omni Plant seeds via mailbox normally after patch 1.17 causing the Sim's action queue to be automatically dropped when they reach the mailbox. There is a temporary workaround for the Sim to bypass the glitch and order the Omni Plant seed via mailbox normally.
• There is a glitch with Gardening after installing Supernatural. Sims' action will be dropped shortly when they are interacting with the plants. The plants will remain in the harvestable state after Sims harvest them instead of going back to mature state, causing the plants to be stuck and unable to produce again. The bug is caused due to the new collection journal feature introduced in this pack. This bug only occurs to Sims who have had history in Collecting; newly-made Sims will not experience this bug. The bug is fixed in Twallan's Overwatch mod.

External Link

• Carl's Sims 3 Fertilizer Tests