Sims 3 Gardening

This blog is about Sims 3 Gardening. Sims 3 is a great game. I have already written one blog post about some of the bugs/quirks in the game, and various alternative fixes for them. I wanted to write another blog post devoted to Gardening. This game has a very deep, and thorough gardening system that did not exist (this deeply) in previous games. This guide assumes you have the latest version of the game + all EP’s and all SP’s (pretty much everything that EA offers for this game).

Basic Structure/Layout

In sims 3, my original approach to the crop structure was one I took from some of the Harvest Moon games (the standard 3X3. Then I realized there were several issues with watering, and reaching all of the crops. So after a lot of trial and error, I settled in a line structure. Each line consists of 2 crops thick and the line can run as far as you want. 2 crops, then 2 crops, then 2 crops and so forth to form as long of a line as you can handle. However, I don’t just stick with one line. I have a total of 3 identical lines running parallel to each other, with one block space in between each one. This is the perfect setup for me for several reasons.

You can get to all of the crops pretty easily.
It allows me to leave line breaks in JUST the middle line. These line breaks are for Sprinklers, explained later.

I always made sure each one of my lines were of identical length, at least at the end if you take into account middle line sprinklers). Then I surround my ENTIRE set of 3 lines with a fence around the entire thing. I place a gate if needed, or a door running straight from inside my house, to the garden. The reason I do this is because of the zombies. They will actually come and destroy your crops, unless you have something preventing them from getting to it. This is almost unavoidable if they are left uncovered. I noticed this problem right off the bat. I am guessing dogs/cats can also destroy them, so this is another good way to prevent your animals from getting into the garden at all. Focusing the effort on just you and your crops.

Watering – Handling Itself

Before I start discussing the handling/care of the crops, I want to let you know about the sprinkler. Tending a large set of crops can be VERY time consuming, so setting up your watering system JUST right prevents you from having to water, saving all of your time for weed pulling, planting, and harvesting (general tending).

Setup line breaks in the MIDDLE line, based off the range of the sprinkler. Go into buy mode and select the sprinkler, and then try to place it to see the water area of coverage. Make your middle line, line breaks in such a way that you can place sprinklers inside them, and get the coverage area to cover as much of your crops as possible (if not all) throughout ALL 3 lines. That’s another reason I do the lines..it allows for maximum coverage of crops, and allows more focus on quantity of crops.

Once that is done, get someone Handy to tweak the sprinkler. At some point you’ll get an option to auto-water. Fix ALL of your sprinklers up with that, and then turn them on. After that just make sure they stay repaired if they ever break, and your done.

Harvesting/Tending/Care

The rest of it’s easy. Get your crops together..you can buy them at a store, or find them laying on the ground. Then start planting whatever you can find. Make sure you only plant what you want. You don’t want 50 apple tree’s, and just 3 wolfsbane. You want to even it out. So at first try building a few of each that you have, and then continue adding as you begin to harvest. Then that’s it. Whenever you see the options available just select Tend to take care of everything (weeding, harvesting) or if you have limited time just harvest. After awhile the plants die after a certain number of harvesting, when that happens just replant something in their place.

I recommend an Alchemy bench near by so you have something to do with all of those crops you harvest. A standard person can handle some decent long lines, although I have over done it before. Just keep up with it the best you can and it’ll get easier and easier.

Fertilizer

In Sims 3 each crop can be fertilized with different types of fertilizer. Fertilizer increases the “quality” of the crops. I generally just fertilize with whatever I want. However, if you research you can find that each type of Crop works best with a “Favorite” type of fertilizer. This increases the effectiveness. However, all I did was randomly apply fertilizer to random stuff…and I was still achieving “Perfect” crops on a lot of them. For specifics on fertilizer, you can check here: http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Gardening_(The_Sims_3)

Overall Sims 3 is fun and worth playing. Give it a try if you haven’t already.

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You can find more about the Sims 3 game here.