@GalacticGal I have no EL and don't plan on getting it either. This bug seem to affect gardener sims with a high skill. I tried another sim with no skill in gardening and she planted about 8 plants with no problem, (Plants seem to disappear on the ground after planting, leaving the sim trying to plant over and over again until you cancel the action.)
I will continue to check her progress, she planted some more plants and her gardening skill has increased to around level 3, no problems with planting so far and I will see what happens when she harvest.
I reported this issue on the EA site for bugs as some other simmers did too, but it was moved by Crinrict and I can not find it. (I am pretty useless navigating forums..he he)
I have been hopping like a mad frog from place to place trying to see if EA has even acknowledged that this issue exists, so far nothing from them and a silly answer by a "plum" simmer who blamed my computer!!!!
For the record: I have a gaming laptop bought this past November that runs both The sims 3 and 4 with no problem whatsoever. It was bought with the specific instructions that it should have absolutely all that was needed for a machine to run both those games and the sims 5 when it comes out (this last however is now being replaced by Paralives when it comes out)
I am off to my garden with a pillow over my face to scream real loud!!!! I am SOOOOO VERY ANGRY about this!