Gardening (The Sims 4)

Gardening is a skill included in The Sims 4. It primarily focuses on a Sim's ability to grow different types of plants. The plants grown through gardening can be sold or in some cases used in recipes.

Learning
Gardening is mainly built by tending various garden plants. Sims may also read a gardening skill book to level the skill more quickly and can also "Research Gardening" on any computer, after reaching level 3. At level 4, Sims can "Talk to Plants," which will build the gardening skill and satisfy social needs.

Planting
Starting with level 1 gardening, a Sim can plant flowers, herbs, fruits, and vegetables on their property, either outdoors on bare earth, or in flower pots. The easiest way to start a garden is to purchase seed packets at a computer or by clicking on a flower pot. Once the Sim received the seed packet, opening it will reveal one of the possible plants at random. Once the plant is placed in a spot where it can be planted, the "Plant" interaction will appear when the Sim clicks on it.

Tending
After it is planted, the Sim can water it to keep it healthy until it grows. When a plant needs to be watered again, its base will appear dry. A normal quality plant will not require weeding or spraying for bugs. Every 12 Sim hours that it remains tended to, it will increase in health, until it is ready to increasing in quality. Every 12 Sim hours that it remains untended (unwatered, covered in weeds, or surrounded by bugs), it will decrease in health until it dies. Its current health is represented by a picture of a daisy when highlighting the plant. The daisy will either be green and smiling, showing it is tended to, or unhappy and red, showing it requires maintenance. The petals around the outside of the daisy will show its progress toward growing in quality or dying. All plants need to be tended to at least once on a daily basis, meaning that even if a plant is not tended to for 12 hours, fully tending it once will provide double the progress of what it lost. None of the plants found on Sixam in The Sims 4: Get to Work require watering.

As plants progress past normal quality, they will start needing to be weeded and eventually sprayed for bugs, in addition to being watered. Weeds and bugs occur randomly and can occur every 24 hours, or not at all. Plants that require weeding will produce small white and yellow flowers around their base. Plants that require the Sim to spray for bugs will have a large number of bugs flying around the plant and will make an audible 'buzzing' sound. Despite the name, the Sixam Mosquito Trap will have no effect on how often plants have to be sprayed for bugs. Starting at level 7, Sims will have the ability to "Tend Garden" which will them to autonomously move between all plants within range, taking care of any tending that the plants need. "Tend Garden" does not autonomously fertilize or harvest plants.

Harvesting
Every so often, plants will produce harvestables. How often, depends on the plant. When it comes time to harvest a plant, it will produce a couple harvestables. If harvested right away, the Sim might receive one harvestable and the plant will be reset, and will be harvestable again after the length of its cycle. If the plant is not harvested as soon as possible, it will continue to produce harvestables until reaching ten, the maximum that any plant can hold. These harvestables can now be eaten, sold, used to plant new plants, or used in cooking or herbalism recipes. Plants can be harvested an unlimited number of times.

Evolve
When plants reach maximum health, they can be evolved by a Sim, who has at least a level 2 gardening skill. This will increase the quality of the plants harvestables and their value. Increasing quality also increases the quality of dishes, drinks, and herbal remedies made with them. Planting a higher quality harvestable will result in a plant starting at that quality. There are eight levels of quality: Normal, Nice, Very Nice, Good, Great, Superb, Magnificent, Pristine, and Perfect. Most plants will increase from 3x to 7x their value between normal and perfect. Trash plants and death flowers are always worth §1, regardless of quality.

Fertilize
Starting at level 5, Sims can fertilize plants, which helps them evolve more quickly. Fertilizing does not affect the quality of the plant or harvestables, or how quickly harvestables are produced, and does not make the plant more resilient to needing water, weeding, or being sprayed for bugs. Plants can be fertilized with any plant or fish. Plants are the most common choice as they are easy to obtain and inexpensive to use up. Death flowers never increase in value past §1, which makes them common choices. There are also unconfirmed reports that trash plants and mushrooms are more effective than other plants, as fertilizers. The in-game description of growfruit states that it is a "great" fertilizer. Given its name and that it was added as part of a gardening event, it is probably the most effective possible fertilizer. Fish are more effective than most plants, increasing in effectiveness depending on the rarity of the fish.

Grafting
After attaining level 5 gardening, Sims gain the ability to cut and graft plants. This allows them to make hybrid plants that grow multiple harvestables at once. To graft two plants together, the Sim simply needs to take a cutting from one plant, and graft it onto another. The second plant will then need to regrow, but after reaching maturity will bear its original harvestable, as well as the harvestable of the plant that was grafted onto it. Certain grafting pairs will produce a third harvestable on the plant, unrelated to the original two. This is the only way to obtain several rare harvestables. After discovering one of these unique pairs, the recipe will be added to that Sim's notebook. Because there are two possible recipes to create bonsai buds, only the first one discovered will show up in the notebook. Grafted plants produce harvestables at the rate of the base plant, not the plant that came from a cutting. They also will start at the quality of the base plant. Multiple plants can be grafted onto one base plant, but plants can only hold up to 10 harvestables, and grafted plants will split that randomly between all types. Mushrooms and the Sixam Mosquito Trap cannot be cut or grafted onto. Too many cuttings will kill a plant. Depending on the plant, they can survive 1 to 3 cuttings.

Death and resurrection
If a plant is not tended to for long enough, it will die. Plants can also be killed by fire, being stomped, or the withering touch of a ghost killed by a Cow Plant. After death, the plant will remain but will begin to produce an odor, similar to trash. No amount of tending can revive it. A Sim can pay §100 to revive a dead plant, at which point it will have to regrow, but will remain the quality it was before death.

Harvestables
There are 35 harvestables that can be collected in the base game and 40 more with every content pack. They are collected through finding them in the wild, grafting, or purchasing seed packets from the computer or garden plot.

Reward
Harvesting one of every base game plant, except the death flower and plantain, will complete the gardening collection and award the "Go, Green Thumbs!" plaque. Plants from various expansions are shown in but not required to complete the gardening collection.

Seed packets
Seed packets can be bought at a computer or, as of Patch 68, directly from build mode under the Outdoor Activities category. However, Vampire Lore Seed Packets must be bought from computers or garden plots. The Growfruit packet is currently unavailable.

Trivia

 * There is an earlier version of the cow berry left in the files called the cow flower.
 * In The Sims 4: Seasons, plants will bloom in spring.
 * Every harvestable has an unused seed version.
 * This can be seen when the player activates  and places the selected harvestable. The seed will be placed and then convert to its harvestable version almost instantly.
 * Before the Seasons Patch, the base game Seed Packets had 2D thumbnails, which have been replaced by traditional 3D thumbnails.