This is my entry for the springtime showcase 2008

Hey everyone, I'm Daisy Delwinkle and I'll be giving you a few helpful tips on gardening. I will be answering the typical questions that an beigner gardner usually has, "Why can I only plant tomatoes?" or a simple question like "how do I plant things?" Don't worry if you know nothing, thats why I am here. I have been training in gardening for as long as I can remember, so your in good hands. Put on your gardening gloves and lets get started!

First off, to have a succesful garden you need the esentials. Garden plot, orchard tree and possibly a green house. (this can all be found in build mode under garden center then gardening) Make sure your in good mood because gardening can take ahile.

Heres a green house, also found in the gardening section of build mode. Green house are extremely useful in winter snow and plants don't go well together, note weather effects plants, a hail storm could damage all your growing plants same with rain your plants could become over watered. In a green house the plants are protected, if theres a roof of course. You can also place orchard trees in a green house, they still go dormant in winter even under a roof.

Why can I only plant tomatoes? theres a very simple answer, you need a higher gardening badge.
The more badges you have the more plants you can grow. You gain skill by caring for plants, watering, tending, harvesting etc.

The different thing you can plant with each bage are...
No Bages: Tomatoes
Bronze Badge: Strawberries and Cucumber
Silver Bage: Pole Beans and Peppers
Gold Badge: Egg Plant and an interaction that allows you to talk to plant (this helps them grow)

Note: Plantsims automatically have a gold badge in gardening.

This is the gold badge interaction "talk to plants" this improves the plants condition quickly.

To grow plants simply click on the gardening plot a menu appears saying plant.. select the plant you wish to grow and your sim will beigin planting. This the first stage of growth.

Sprinklers are a very helpful object, they water plants for you! you will never have to waste time going around and watering, although you can't gain badge skill with sprinklers (it doesnt count as watering) Sprinklers work automatically you dont have to turn them on. They know when to start.

Note: Sprinklers can break and it will make your sims environment need go way down!

See the green jagged stuff at the base of the plant, this stuff means your plant needs to be tended simply click the plant and select tend don't let this stuff stay it will make your plant unhealthy!

This is the second stage of growth one more and you can harvest!

These are two objects that can be very helpful towards your garden, the one on the left is the lady bug loft, it protects your garden from bugs and plus it looks cool. The object on the right is a compost bin you can add garbage or plants and it makes a fertilizer that you can use, that way you dont have to spent 10 dollars per bag!

This is the $10 fertilizer. It helps your plants grow. Before you plant put on the fertilizer simply by clicking the garden plot. I suggest you use compost its free and doesnt take much time to make.

When your plants get invested by bugs you will know, trust me, you can see bugs flying all around the tree or plant. When this happens just click the plant and select spray.

Warning don't inhale to much spray or else...

The garden club, If your sim is into gardening then this club is perfect for them, just pick up the pone and select service, garden club. They send a person over to inspect your garden, click on the representative and ask for a membership they call up some other member and inspect your garden, make sure you plants are tended and theres no garbage lying around.

When they inspect they look for the following.

Good: High quality plants and trees
Well tended plants
plots that are fertilized or composted (compost is better)
compost bin (better if theres stuff in them)
Ladybug Lofts
High priced potted plants, foutains

Bad: Dead plants
Under watered palnts
Invested Plants
Weeds
Trash
Flamingo or lawn gnome (cheap deco.)

At the end of the inspections they say if you had an excellent garden or and okay or bad, they may also leave a comment like add more plants or decorations.

The perks of being in the garden club.

Discount prices on garden stuff
win simoleons
be given the wishing well (if they dont give it to you it may be because you didnt get a high score or it's in your inventory)

And finally your plants are ready to be harvested, if you have the gold badge it's a good idea to talk to the plants one last time before harvesting. Now time to harvest click the plant and select harvest or harvest many. It is best to harvest when your plants have a dark green happy face, you will get the best tasting fruits and vegtables that way.

Now that there harvested, go to your jucier (found in the buy section under kitchen) click the juice and select stock. Once you have stocked enough fruit or veggies you can make juice, feel free to mix and match produce to make good or not so good juice

Each different type of juice has an effect.
Apple Juice (3 apples) - finish homework faster
Beauty Cocktail (2 orange, 2 cucumber) - love potion
Eggplant Juice (2 eggplants) - random skill points
Lemonade (6 lemons) - cools sims down
Orange Juice (6 oranges) - cures colds
Orangeade (4 oranges, 2 lemons) - random badge points
Pepper Punch (2 peppers, 1 pole bean, 1 apple) - enery boost
Pureed Boot (1 boot from fishing) - freak out (sim does random animations) no hunger satisfaction
Strawberry Lemonade (2 straberries, 2 lemons) - platinum aspiration
Strawberry Juice (3 strawberries) - clears furious bit
Tomato Juice (3 tomatoes) - warms sims up
Vegetable Cocktail (1 tomato, 1 cucumber, 1 pepper, 1 pole bean) - builds skill faster

And were done! Thank you very reading my guide to gardening and I hope you enjoyed it and hopefully learned something today,
see ya!

thank you for reading, rate high and sign my guest book
jordan05player