Help with gardening and understanding switching Sims

@EeveeTinn 

Wild plants start to grow when you are in the same neighborhood they are in. You must be there long enough for them to mature. You buy seeds by clicking on a planter, by using the computer or buying them in build/buy mode.

When you are away from the lot the default for the sims there is "Care for self" which mean that they will do whatever they like.

@EeveeTinnOk, first welcome to the Sims 4!

Let me start with plants.  Wild plants are just one way you get the seeds to plant in your garden.  They grow in the different worlds.  The key is that you have to be there at a certain time to get the fruit.  Throughout the game, all the plants first have to grow before they bear fruit.  So when you start a new game, most plants are just a pile of dirt.  It takes several days for all the plants in a zone to grow.  Some are faster than others.  Trees take the longest.  Once they grow to full size, then they will bear fruit every day.  But you have to be in a zone before 5 AM for the plants in that zone to bear fruit.  The fruit starts showing at 5 AM and it takes until 5:30 AM before they bear the maximum number every day.  It is the same in every world and zone.  Practically speaking, to get all the plants to grow, you have to live in the zone at first to get things going.  Visiting other zones and spending time in them helps the plants to grow in those locations.  But you have to have an active sim in the zone at the right time for any of them to bear fruit you can harvest.

Seasons introduced seasonal plants. So that adds another factor because most plants only grow in certain seasons so not only do you have to be at the right time of day, but the plants have to be in season.  At the end of a season, all the plants that are no longer in season will drop back to a pile of dirt and won't grow again until their season returns.  

Seasons also introduced seed packets that you can buy from the computer.  There are a couple of different options depending on what packs you have. That is the easiest way to get most of the plants.  I'm not sure if you can buy them that way if you don't have Seasons though.  I'm not sure if buying the seeds was added to base game or not.  If you have City Living, there is also a produce vendor you can buy fruit from but you can't get them all.  Vampires, Realm of Magic, Get To Work, Jungle Adventures, and Island Living all introduced different plants to the game. 

Once you have a fruit, then you can plant it in the ground or in a planter.  Covering your plants by a roof will let them bear all year round.  I put most of my gardens on a basement level for that reason.

On controlling sims, what you describe is normal game behavior.  Only sims that are in the active household can be controlled.  If you send a sim off to work or class, they will go and not be controllable until they return.  If you travel with a sim, then the other sims in the household left behind are no longer controllable.  The only thing you can do with them is assign them skills to work on, socialize with other sims or care for themselves.  Things also depend on where you are.  For university, if you are living on campus, you can switch to other sims when a sim heads to class but on a residential lot not on campus, if you follow a sim to class then switch to another sim, it doesn't work.  The key thing is if you traveled via a travel screen.  If you didn't get a screen then all but the sim you sent away are controllable.  If you got a travel screen, then only the sim that traveled is controllable.

Hope this helps you.

Thanks! Yeah, I bought a lot of seeds and got some nice ones, and some plants grow in the neighbourhood I am in so harvested those. Only plants I never managed to get was tomatoes and potatoes, and now in Seasons managed to get a bell paper (finally) from one of the seasonal seed packs. I was just confused because I kept coming back to one of the lots where there is tomato and potato, but they simply don't grow at all when I come. I will then try place active Sims in the neighbourhood, as not all plants come in the seed packs but need to find them like this. (Still, this kind of mechanics makes me tad disappointed,  would be better if they grew regardless of the active household)

I see, so it is supposed to be that way. I guess I expected better interaction between switching to other Sims in the household, really don't like how every sim "resets" the activity when I leave with one. Wish they would just stay asleep if I put them asleep 😂

@EeveeTinn  You can get all the plants from seed packs except the 3 Get to Work Alien plants, the 10 Outdoor Retreat plants for herbalism and the UFO fruit which you get from spaceship missions. The Forbidden Fruit from the Plantsim challenge can be gotten by planting the Magic Beans which you buy in the seed packs.  You have to go to Sixam and Granite Falls to get the plants from those places.

You do need to level up the gardening skill to 7 to get the uncommon seeds and level 10 to get the rare seeds to show up in the order menu under purchase seeds so that is probably why you haven't seen some of them to buy.  Magical seeds show up there too if you have Realm of Magic.  There are several options too.  Purchase seeds, Seasonal seeds, Plasma Fruit, Garlic and Wolfsbane seeds. So you need to buy off all the options to get them all.

As I said before, you have to have the plants fully grown and have to be there at 5 AM to get anything from the plants in a zone.  So just keep trying.  You will get them sooner or later.

Hope this helps.

This is why I wanted a fresh answer as I read before that you can't get all the plants from seed packages (potatoes and tomatoes fx). I have been playing for 2 months and had sims level up to 10 and bought a lot of seed packages but never got to have all of them, but as you suggested for getting the wild plants I will keep doing that 🙂

I don't have Realm of Magic, I have these: University, Island Living, Pets, Seasons (bought few days ago), Vampires, Dine Out, Spa Day, Tiny Living Stuff, Laundry Day Stuff, Holiday and Perfect Patio Stuff. 

When I installed Seasons, some of basic plants I didn't manage to get before Seasons, appeared in the seed packs so that was nice. I will see how it goes with your advice, thanks 😁

Just wanted to let you know that I finally got both potatoes and tomatoes in seed packs 😂 bought 10 of each summer and winter and it was finally there 😂 i don't know if i would manage to get then without Seasons pack but now I finally collected all possible plants from what I own 😂

@EeveeTinn  Good for you!  I'm glad you got them!