Gardening Term Question

"iamsweetmystery;d-946355" wrote:
I guess it's a new thing, but I found out that if I Shift+Click a garden plant, I get this huge menu of ways to manipulate them, including advancing their Evolution. That's pretty cool. One thing in that menu I don't get is under the category "Weeds..." It has one Weed State called "Mulched". What is that? I'm not aware of any way to buy mulch or to put mulch on plants. Anyone know what this is about?

Yeah, the game is kinda like that. Some things get half coded in, but might not be fully functional. One function in particular that I can think of, is to do with the beds. There is, actually, coded in game, or was, at least, an interaction to Relax On The Bed, but it wasn't enabled for the menu. A modder saw it in the code, and enabled it when he or she made the All Beds Same Energy Mod. That mod was taken over by a different modder, tho. I forget if the option is still in the menu. When it was though, it totally worked.

In this case, they were probably thinking about being able to mulch plants, but it got lost along the wayside somewhere. Did any visible effects show up if you have tried it? I imagine it does have something to do with the growth of weeds.

@SherryRN, ah, I'm sorry you're having such a time with your garden lot. I'm sure that if you have mods, you've tried removing them, and putting back gradually to test, the process after patches.

I haven't given the new Gardening a good run through since the Patch. I do have some gardens that I have spent a great deal of time establishing, too, and I just want to get a bit up to speed with what I'm doing. My guess would be that maybe your garden is buggy because of the Patch. The Pre-Seasons Patch was just chock full of code changes that can affect the game in random and unexpected ways. Gardening itself had a huge overhaul, as I'm sure you've realized.

I have a similar park lot, which has a Perfect garden with all plants up to the Patch. I'm a bit unsure how to proceed. If the same thing happens to me, I might indeed do as you have said, and pick one of everything to replant from scratch. That may reset the plants if they're bugged? I don't know if they will still be Perfect, since the evolvement cycle has been changed. It does take way less time to evolve now, so that's a plus.

Edit: By taking less time to evolve, I mean the Evolve process itself, not the time it takes for them to be ready to do so. That seems to take a while, but there are less levels, so however that comes out, I'm not sure.

I'm not positive this will fix your Sims getting stuck, tho. That maybe a separate glitch. It seems to be happening with other non-gardening interactions, too, until they find and fix the problem.

One thing that did occur to me to ask. Do you have Get Together expansion? You can make a Gardening Club, and have them gather at the park to take care of the garden together. Just make sure to harvest first if you can and need to. If you don't have GT, you maybe be able to put Sims in a Group, and try it that way. Sometimes even NPCs can be gotten to do things using this, altho they are a bit more stubborn than controlled Sims because of Skill levels, other Needs, etc. Can the other members of your Sims' households help them with the lower skill tasks?

Planting things without the planters, for me, has always acted the way you mention. I think it's because the game is rather picky about placement of the plants because of routing, etc.

I was a bit confused by what you said about the game not thinking your plants are a garden anymore? Are you not able to hire a Gardener, or what made you say this?

If you aren't in a huge hurry to get Seasons, it probably isn't going to help immensely. Most of the gardening changes were in the Patch before the release. So to fix the glitches will also require Patches. It just takes patience to wait for them. One thing Season does have that will help with watering is rain, and sprinklers, too. It does complicate matters as well, tho. You have to have a plan to deal with the coming and going of seasons, and the various accompanying plant cycles. Plants are dormant at certain seasons, active in others, and that requires an adjustment of playing style. Plants don't actually die, tho, unless they're neglected, of course. They just become dormant.

If you have enjoyed gardening, tho, you will probably enjoy making bouquets at the floral station, and the new Career. I myself have loved the Expansion. I think I love the new activities the most, ice and rollerskating, water balloon play, scouting, the calendar for special holidays and events, the decorations etc, etc. And the swing set--I couldn't love such a little thing more. The swing is very well done, with all ages able to participate, and great animations.