Gardeners, do you build greenhouses?

Nope, I like the wild winter look of my sims' gardens. Also, less garden chores in the winter, more time for other activities.

Good points. What annoys me about having them grow outside is when they're out of season, they're just a lump of dirt laying there teasing you. They're saying "Ha ha, I'm here but you can't have me. ?"

"PenguinFoop;c-18055108" wrote:
Good points. What annoys me about having them grow outside is when they're out of season, they're just a lump of dirt laying there teasing you. They're saying "Ha ha, I'm here but you can't have me. ?"

There are plants that keep growing and you can harvest in winter too, like holly. But you could use the winter time to process some of the harvestables you collect, make fizzy drinks, or candles, or flower arrangements, so you still earn an income.

I like to give my sims a greenhouse. It was something I always wanted in RL but never got.

My sims usually have both a greenhouse and an outdoor garden, unless there is a lifestyle reason why I don't do that (like my sim who lives in an underground bunker). Growing up in Alaska, my family had both a garden and a greenhouse (all the plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and bell peppers had to be in the greenhouse because the summers never got warm enough for them, but lettuce, carrots, cabbages etc could be outdoors) so having both a garden and greenhouse just seemed completely normal to me and I never even gave it a moment's thought.

In the most of my sim households, I grow several of each in-season plant in the outdoor garden, and at the end of their growing season, I keep only the highest quality individual of each type of plant and move those to the greenhouse. I delete all the extra ones. I move the new in-season plants (that were in the greenhouse) out to the outdoor garden, and plant extras for that season. So I always have a trickle of out-of-season produce, from the singles in the greenhouse, but the majority of the harvest is from the in-season garden.

I do a combination of both. With a new household, just an outdoor garden. Eventually, provided there is room, I will build a small greenhouse and move specific plants which are seasonal into it, but even then I still continue growing other things outside.

I tend to reduce the total number of plants by using grafting and I generally graft seasonal plants onto plants which are "all season" , which means I can grow most things outdoors year round. For that reason, when I do build a greenhouse it is generally rather small.

"crocobaura;c-18055115" wrote:

"PenguinFoop;c-18055108" wrote:
Good points. What annoys me about having them grow outside is when they're out of season, they're just a lump of dirt laying there teasing you. They're saying "Ha ha, I'm here but you can't have me. ?"

There are plants that keep growing and you can harvest in winter too, like holly. But you could use the winter time to process some of the harvestables you collect, make fizzy drinks, or candles, or flower arrangements, so you still earn an income.

While this is true, I will have sims who live on their floral arranging skill in time so I would need to do that all year round.

"Stormkeep;c-18055127" wrote:
I do a combination of both. With a new household, just an outdoor garden. Eventually, provided there is room, I will build a small greenhouse and move specific plants which are seasonal into it, but even then I still continue growing other things outside.

I tend to reduce the total number of plants by using grafting and I generally graft seasonal plants onto plants which are "all season" , which means I can grow most things outdoors year round. For that reason, when I do build a greenhouse it is generally rather small.

You hit on my next concern and the solution. The concern was having a greenhouse to accommodate all in-game plants would be larger than the house.

Now for the solution, grafting seasonal plants with all season plants?!? So if I do that then those that only naturally grow in say summer will grow all year because of the all season plants??? So you specifically said you graft the seasonal onto the non-seasonals. So does it have to be that way?

I remember once having that work by accident but when I tried it intentionally, it failed. I thought it was a glitch. But maybe I grafted in the wrong direction.

You can graft any plant onto any other plant, except for a handful of fungi (specifically the base game and cottage living mushrooms). The final result is a plant which grows both types of fruits. Or 3 types of fruits, if you graft 2 different plants onto one other one.
Mind you, you get reduced total output because the resulting single plant, though it will produce multiple types of outputs, won't produce more total output...just more variety. Some days you might not even get both types of fruit as a result.

But yes, if you graft an apple tree, which only grows in fall, onto a sage plant, which grow year round, the resulting bush will grow year round, producing both apples and sage. I do this to eliminate all of the plants which only grow in a single season by grafting them onto other plants which grow in all seasons or, at the very least, 2 seasons. What you do is take the cutting from the plant you intend to completely eliminate and graft it onto the plant you wish to keep.

Also, be aware, that some grafting combinations produce new fruits rather than just a combination of the two plants and some plants grow faster than others, so that's something to additionally keep in mind if you want the desired final plant to be faster growing.
This is a solid guide that covers which combinations produce something entirely new: https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/help/grafting.php

My main reason for grafting is just so I don't have as many plants to tend, but as long as I'm going to do it for that reason, I also try to do it in a way that gives me plants which produce for more of the year even when they are outside.

I just have a mod that allows all plants to grow in all seasons. Problem solved :D

I like having both outdoor gardens and greenhouses, depending on how much room my gardener sims’ lots have.

I just recently learned from some simmers in these forums about being able to make a building for the plants to grow in, and I appreciate being able to make greenhouses. I don’t want to constantly worry about the seasons and weather, especially since I rotate lots a lot, and forget what season a family may be in, lol.