Gardening (The Sims 3)

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.

Statistics
Number Planted, Unique Plants Planted, Items Harvested, Perfect Items Harvested, Unknown Seeds Planted, Best Harvestable, Money Earned, Largest Money Bag Harvested.

Challenges
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.
 * Master Planter

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.
 * Botanical Boss

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.
 * Master Farmer

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.

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 as ingredients for Cooking, Nectar Making, and Mixology. The food, nectar, and drink quality depends on how the quality of the used produce. Some produce can also be used as fishing bait.

Fertilizer
Fertilizer is used to enhance the produce. The quality of the produce will increase as long as the fertilizer is applied.

The time is increased by 1 day for Great, Excellent, and Outstanding fertilizer, and 2 days for perfect fertilizer.

The quality of the fertilizer modifies its effectiveness. For qualities ranging from Horrifying (the lowest) to Very Nice inclusively, a multiplier is applied to the fertilizer's effectiveness or grade ranging from 0.6 to 1.2. This modifier increases by 0.1 with each successive level of quality the fertilizer gains. Starting from Very Nice up to Perfect, that is from 1.2 to 2.0, the modifier increases by increments of 0.2 with each improvement to the fertilizer's quality. The net result is that the worst possible quality (Horrifying) reduces the effectiveness of the fertilizer by 40%, a Normal quality fertilizer maintains it as it is (fertilizer x 1.0), and a Perfect fertilizer doubles the original efficiency (fertilizer x 2.0). The following table presents all the relevant data.


 * Fertilizer modifiers based on its quality

Furthermore, having the Master Farmer challenge completed gives an additional 2 days of fertilized time to any plant.

Helpful tips

 * Dead vs Barren
 * Dead plants can occur after you neglect any plants under 'Wilting' condition for one day. After that, your Sim will have to dispose or revive them (Green Thumb trait is required for reviving). Barren plants have the same appearance as dead plants, but they cannot be revived. Each plant will become barren after it reaches its maximum amount of produce.
 * (Note: Money trees cannot be revived as they'll explode upon their death)


 * Sick of watering your plants?
 * This helpful sprinkler waters plants in a 5x5 area. Once turned on, it will run 24/7. It can be upgraded with Auto-Water so it will run between 4am and 7am, which is helpful as it starts an hour before the growth occurs, and ends an hour after.


 * The best choice in traits for Gardening
 * The Green Thumb trait increases the quality of plant produce and grants the "Talk To Plant" interaction, which fills the social motive of the Sim.
 * The Loves the Outdoors trait will create a positive moodlet when a Sim possessing it is outdoors.
 * The Eco-friendly trait will also create a positive moodlet when gardening.
 * The Gatherer trait increases the quality of produce harvested from seeds the Sim plants.


 * Search the neighborhood for better quality seeds to start with.
 * Using high-quality fertilizer can shorten growth time to as few as 4 days from planting to harvesting.
 * Plasma Fruit seed is the easiest unknown special seed to recognize, the seed has a red pulse on it.
 * The Harvester tool in Ambitions speeds up the harvesting process.
 * Unicorn's ability to bless flora can make plants grow up one level higher, up until they are harvestable.

External Link

 * For more on fertilizer's effects, see Carl's Sims 3 Fertilizer Tests