The Sims 4 Gardening Career & Skill Guide

Gardening is probably one of the most relaxing, as well as rewarding, activities that you can do in The Sims 4. There are a lot of reasons why you should indulge in it. By growing your own produce, you can use the ingredients in cooking and baking, making your creations taste even better, not to mention saving costs. Gardening also makes for a very profitable side hustle, if you choose to sell your harvests. You might not get much with just a few basic quality plants, but with a flourishing garden full of high-quality harvestables, the money will come rolling in. You’ll be left wondering why you didn’t try gardening in The Sims 4 before!

Gardening in The Sims 4 is fairly straightforward, although if you want to make a success of it, there are a few tricks and tips. That’s what this guide is for. We’ll also walk you through the Gardener career that comes with The Sims 4 Seasons Expansion, and look into the creative Flower Arranging skill.

If you’re looking for more The Sims 4 guides, why not check these out:

• The Sims 4 Business Career Guide
• The Sims 4 Doctor Career Guide
• The Sims 4 Detective Career Guide
• The Sims 4 Island Conservation Guide
• The Sims 4 Expansion Pack Cheats Guide

Gardening Skill

Gardening was a skill originally introduced with The Sims 4 base game, but with the Seasons Expansion Pack, it received a big overhaul. Generally, Gardening isn’t a tricky skill to get to grips with. It’s also one of those skills you can easily make money from.

How to Build the Gardening Skill

If you’re interested in starting Gardening in The Sims 4, the best thing to do is to actually start gardening. This skill is very practical, and the best way to build it is to grow your own garden. Ideally, you want plenty of plants to grow. It doesn’t matter what you grow; anything you work on will build Gardening. One or two plants probably aren’t enough to build your skill quickly. Get yourself as many plants as possible, anything, so you’ve got a lot to work with. Ideally, you’ll want a varied selection of plants, so you have lots of different things to sell or keep for your own means. You might want to gather ingredients for cooking, or flower arranging.

You can also buy skill books to build up your Gardening skill. This might be ideal if your Sim is unable to garden (for example, due to bad weather). However, reading skill books doesn’t increase skill as much as actually doing it.

All Skill Levels of the Gardening Skill

As you improve your Sim’s Gardening skill, you unlock new interactions so that gardening can become much easier and time efficient, not to mention getting access to rarer plants to grow.

Level 1	Can Plant, Water, Weed, and Harvest.
Level 2	Can Research Gardening on the computer, use Research on plants to learn more about them, and water multiple plants.
Level 3	Sim gains Fun when Gardening and can now Fertilize plants.
Level 4	Can now Talk to Plants and harvest multiple plants.
Level 5	Can Take Cuttings and Graft to produce hybrid plants.
Level 6	Can Weed more than one plant at a time.
Level 7	Can purchase Uncommon and Farmer Seeds. Can also Spray for Bugs in larger areas.
Level 8	Can overgrow pruned Bonsai trees to re-shape them. The Super Sell interaction is also available to sell all plants in an area.
Level 9	With Tend Garden, your Sim can Water, Weed, and Spray for Bugs all at once.
Level 10	Can purchase Rare Seeds.

 

Gardening With Seasons

There are a few things you must keep in mind when it comes to Gardening. If you have The Sims 4 Seasons installed, there’s one thing that is a biggie: the seasons. Certain plants will only grow in certain seasons. Some plants thrive all year and produce harvestables; others are only around for one or two seasons. When you are planning to plant your garden, hover over the produce. It’ll tell you what seasons it grows and produces harvestables in. Plants will grow outside of their season, but you cannot do anything with them. You can’t water them, weed them, spray bugs, harvest them; nothing. All these options become available the moment the plant comes into season.

There’s something else to watch out for that you mustn’t let the changing seasons catch you out: the temperature. If it ever drops to freezing, you cannot plant anything. You can place a produce-to-seed on the ground or in a garden pot, but the option to Plant will be greyed out. Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do except wait for the temperature to rise above freezing. This scenario is unideal for planting in the winter season, when it is generally freezing for most of the time. The best thing to do is plant the winter produce before the winter season arrives, not during, because you’ll lose your chance otherwise. Even though the winter plants won’t be available to harvest in the fall, you can still grow them so they’ll be ready for the winter.

Keeping the different seasons in mind is another good reason why you should allow a variety of plants to grow in your garden. You should have at least one plant from each season growing at a time, so there’s always something to work with. Having plants with multiple growing seasons is even better. 

Where to Get Plants

In order to start gardening, there’s something important you need: the plants themselves! But the question is: where do you get them? There are a lot of places in The Sims 4 where you can obtain plants to start growing. To be honest, it’s not really hard finding a plant to grow, but it’s more of finding the plant you want to grow. Here are examples of where you can find plants in The Sims 4:

• Harvesting plants in the wild of the various worlds. Note that plants may not be ready to harvest when you find arrive at a neighborhood. You may need to give the plant a few hours to produce something you can take. You also have to take into account the time of year, if you have Seasons. This is a good option if you want to avoid spending money, especially when you’re starting out or don’t have many funds.
• Purchasing seeds through a computer, garden planter, or Buy/Build Mode. This is a good way to get you started, although it’ll cost money. You also don’t know what you’ll get in each packet.
• Ordering gifts through a phone. You can buy gardening-related gifts such as apples and daisies.
• Ordering groceries. You can get edible plants this way.
• At the Beach Supplies stand in Sulani (Island Living).
• Visiting the Garden and Grocery Shop in Henford-on-Bagley (Cottage Living). This is a really great place to find a whole plethora of flowers, fruits, vegetables, and herbs to grow.
• Visiting the flower stall in Tartosa, if you have My Wedding Stories Game Pack.
• The Bits and Bales Merchandile store in Chestnut Ridge (Horse Ranch).

Growing, Tending, and Harvesting

Gardening isn’t hugely taxing, or difficult, in The Sims 4, but plants do need looking after. There are a lot less demanding than, say, infants and toddlers, but they can’t be ignored completely if you want them to thrive. If you wish to avoid your plants wilting and dying, and you want to evolve them to improve their quality, your plants will need to be kept an eye on.

Planting Plants

The first step in gardening – apart from deciding what to actually plant in the first place – is seeding it. “Seeds” in The Sims 4 are actually a single harvestable of the produce you want to plant, whether it be a fruit, vegetable, herb, or flower. You simply place it either on the ground or in a planter, and the option to Plant becomes available (make sure you don’t select Eat by mistake!) Your Sim has to manually plant the “seed”, which only takes a few seconds. However, if you have a lot of plants to seed, a dozen or so, it can take longer. Once the plant is in the ground or planter though, you’re on your way (or the plant is, at least).

As soon as you have planted a plant (or waited for your Sim to finish planting all seeds they want to), don’t forget to water it! This option becomes available the moment the seeding is done.

Tending Plants

After seeding a plant, it’ll take a few days for it to fully mature. It won’t produce anything you can harvest straight away. One thing you need with gardening is patience. There are things you can do while waiting for a plant to mature, and they’ll all increase your Sim’s Gardening skill.

Plants will need watering now and again, not just when you first plant them. Keep an eye on your plants and make sure they don’t need watering. Once the Water option appears, do so.

Weeds sometimes spring up around a plant. You’ll need to get rid of them as soon as they appear, as they can drag down a plant’s quality. Simply select Weed and your Sim will do the rest.

You might notice now and again bugs swarming around individual plants. These are unwelcome visitors, and the only way to rid of them is using Spray Bugs. Don’t leave bugs that are infesting plants; they can deplete a plant’s quality.

As your Sims become more experienced gardeners, their abilities improve. They’ll be able to water, weed, and spray more than one plant at a time, instead of doing each one individually. This will save a lot of time.

Harvesting Plants

After a few days, finally, your plant will produce something you can pick. It’ll be obvious when a plant is ready to harvest, with the produce on show. Harvesting couldn’t be easier. Simply select the ready plant and choose Harvest. Harvested plants will appear in your Sim’s personal inventory. When you harvest a plant, you do not need to replant it. It will keep producing harvestables until it dies or has been uprooted or deleted.

There are actually a few options when harvesting. You can harvest just the plant you selected. Alternatively, Harvest All allows you to harvest the produce from all mature plants nearby. Another option is to Sell Plant or Sell All, if you want to just sell the harvestables for money. 

There are a lot of things you can do with produce harvested from a plant. You can keep them in your Sim’s inventory; they will never spoil. You can sell produce in your Sim’s inventory as well. Harvestables can also be used in cooking, grilling and baking for ingredients, or flower arranging in the case of flowers. Doing so reduces and even omits the cost of cooking and crafting. Harvestables can also be gifted to other Sims, or sold at sale stands. Also, you can use harvestables to seed even more plants!

Evolving Plants

Something you need to know about harvestables is that they come in different levels of quality. Initially when planted, they start at the Normal quality, but overtime, they can improve to be Nice, Great, etc. Altogether, there are 5 levels of quality a plant can have. This is very important because higher quality plants produce more profitable harvestables. If used in cooking/baking/flower arranging, the dishes/arrangements will be of better quality.

Keep an eye on your plants and see when they’re ready to evolve. There are a few notable things to watch out for. Plants ready to evolve will have sparkles around them, and when you hover over them, the quality meter will have a symbol on it. The interaction Evolve will also be available. Evolve must be done individually; you cannot mass evolve plants.

Other Things You Can Do With Plants

Gardening is quite an extensive pastime in The Sims 4. There’s a lot more you can do with plants than just remove weeds and pick the harvestables.

Fertilize

If you want to help improve the quality of your plants, you should consider fertilizing them. With this, you add a harvestable or fish to a plant and it helps it grow.

Grafting

Grafting is an interesting activity with gardening, if you fancy being creative. With the Take Cutting interaction, you can mix one plant with another so you have one plant producing more than one type of harvestable. When you graft a plant, you have to wait for it to produce the new harvestables.

Take Microscope Sample

If your Sim is interested in science, they can take a microscope sample and use it on the microscope object to learn more about it.

Talk to Plant

If your Sims ever get lonely, why not let them talk to their plants? It will boost your Sim’s Social Need.

Research/Analyze

Research is a handy tool when it comes to gardening. You can use this to learn more about whatever is in your garden. Your Sim will study the plant and take notes, which will then appear in the Notebook.

Dead Plants/Uprooting Plants

If you seriously neglect your plants, failing to water them, weed them, or spray the bugs away, they will eventually wilt and die. There is no way of reviving dead plants. Plants are useless when they are dead. You cannot do anything with them except the Dispose option.

Plants can also be uprooted. This clears a space away, especially useful if you want to get rid of the plant and put something new in its place.

Growing Oversized Crops

You might be familiar with giant crop growing if you have The Sims 4 Cottage Living Expansion. These plants grow differently to the usual harvestables. They must be grown on a special plot of garden, can only have special fertilizer added, and once you pick it, it disappears and you have to replant. Oversized crops really deserve a guide of their own, so stay tuned!

The Cowplant

The Cowplant is a staple not just in The Sims 4, but the whole series of The Sims. This plant is extremely unique, and as the name suggests, is half a plant, half a cow, with a cow’s head and plant’s body. It’s a bit freaky looking, especially when you encounter it for the first time.

To get a Cowplant, you need to get a Cowberry, which is very rare. You’ll get one as a reward for promotion in the Gardener career, but you can also get it from rare seed packets and even things like fishing. Then you just plant and water the Cowberry like any other plant and wait for it to grow. Eventually, it’ll grow into a fully-mature Cowplant.

Cowplants have a few interactions. You can Pet and Play With them, but do so with caution. Cowplants are not to be messed with! It is also very important to Feed Cowplants. Cowplants who go without being fed for 12 hours will eventually die, leaving behind a skeleton. If you do choose to have a Cowplant, make sure you take good care of it!

Cowplants are notorious for gobbling Sims up and leaving behind a useful potion for other Sims to drink. When interacting with a Cowplant, especially when feeding them, there’s a chance they will “devour” your Sim. Don’t panic, they won’t digest your Sim the first time. Your Sim will be left with a negative moodlet, which lasts 2 days. If your Sim attempts to feed the Cowplant with the moodlet still active and the Cowplant devours them a second time, your Sim will be sent to an early grave. The key thing is to look out for the cake the Cowplant has on its tongue.

Flower Arranging Skill (Seasons Expansion)

Flower Arranging is one of those activities in The Sims 4 if you love being creative and making crafts. It’s a great combination of being artistic and gardening. It is also only available to players who have the Seasons Expansion installed.

With Flower Arranging, Sims assemble a combination of flowers into vases at a special workbench. These can then be kept by the Sim or given as a gift to another Sim, or sold to make some money. Flower Arranging can be made into a profitable activity.

How to Build the Flower Arranging Skill

To get started, you need the right tools, or workstation in this case. The only way to put together flower arrangements is with the Violets Are Blue Flower Arranging Table, available in Build Mode for §250.

Once you’ve got the table, it’s time to get arranging! You can make flower arrangements even if you have no prior experience with Flower Arranging. However, to start with, you’ll only have a small selection of arrangements available, that being with daisies and bluebells. However, work your way up and more arrangements will become available. You only need to get to level 5 in order to get all the arrangements. Altogether, the Flower Arranging skill comes in 10 levels.

The best way to build up the Flower Arranging skill is by actually doing it. You’ll be arranging lots of flowers if you want to get to level 10! Alternatively, you can buy the Flower Arranging skill books and read those to increase your skill, but it is much more beneficial actually making the flowers.

All Skill Levels of Flower Arranging

With Flower Arranging, for the first 5 levels, you get new arrangements with new flowers. From level 3, you can start scenting your arrangements to boost their freshness. From level 4, arrangements of previous levels will start improving in quality. As you climb the Flower Arranging skill, you’ll not only unlock more arrangements to make, but their quality will improve, allowing arrangements to stay fresh for longer and make more money when selling.

Level 1	Bluebell and Daisy Arrangements Available
Level 2	Crocus, Rose, and Snapdragon Arrangements Available
Level 3	Begonia, Dahlia, and Tulip Arrangements Available. Can also scent arrangements with Crocuses and Snowdrops.
Level 4	Christmas Rose, Lily, and Snowdrop Arrangements Available. Can also scent arrangements with Bluebells and Daisies. All Level 1 arrangements will be of higher quality.
Level 5	Bird of Paradise and Orchid Arrangements Available. Can also scent arrangements with Dahlias and Roses. All Level 2 arrangements will be of higher quality.
Level 6	Can scent arrangements with Chrysanthemums and Snapdragons. All Level 3 arrangements will be of higher quality.
Level 7	Can scent arrangements with Christmas Roses and Tulips. All Level 4 arrangements will be of higher quality.
Level 8	Can scent arrangements with Begonias and Birds of Paradise. All Level 5 arrangements will be of higher quality.
Level 9	Can scent arrangements with Death Flowers and Lilies.
Level 10	Can scent arrangements with Orchids.

All Flower Arrangements & Vases

There are a LOT of flower arrangements you can do. In total, there’s 65, once you unlock all arrangements at level 5, so they’ll keep you busy for a very long time! Below is a list of every single flower arrangement available with The Sims 4 Seasons. You’ll see what flowers you need and how many of each, the skill level it’s available at, and the total cost for making it.

Note that you do not need to have the flowers in your inventory in order to make them. The total cost of the arrangement comes from not having the flowers – or correct number of flowers – on your Sim. If your Sim has all the flowers they need for an arrangement, they don’t have to pay to make it. If an arrangement has more than one type of flower needed to make it and you have some but not all of the flowers, the total cost of making will be reduced. For example, with the Daisies and Bluebells arrangement, if you have at least 2 bluebells but no daisies on you, you’ll only pay $9 to make the arrangement instead of $18.

A good tip if you’re planning to do a lot of flower arranging and make a profit from it: grow all your own flowers required for the arrangements. This way, you don’t have to pay anything to make them; you’ll just be making money from selling instead! In some cases, supplying your own flowers is ideal because some arrangements are very expensive. Pink Orchids, for example, costs $844 just to make.

Flowers you pick can be stored on the flower arranging table or on your Sim. Either way doesn’t matter.

Arrangement Name	Flowers Used	Skill Level	Total Cost to Make
Bluebells	Bluebell x 3	1	§9
Daisies	Daisy x 3	1	$9
Daisies and Bluebells	Bluebell x 2 Daisy x 2	1	$18
Holly	Holly x 3	1	$14
Summer’s Morning	Chrysanthemum x 4	1	$60
White Chrysanthemums	Chrysanthemum x 3	1	$45
Azure Cream	Bluebell x 2 Snapdragon x 2	2	$54
Bridal Ruffles	Chrysanthemum x 2 Rose x 2	2	$117
Crocus	Crocus x 3	2	$34
Dozen Orange Roses	Rose x 3	2	$109
Dozen Pink Roses	Rose x 3	2	$109
Dozen Red Roses	Rose x 3	2	$109
Dozen White Roses	Rose x 3	2	$109
Dualistic Dragons	Snapdragon x 4	2	$64
Purple Parallel	Rose x 2 Crocus x 2	2	$114
Rosey Disposition	Rose x 2 Snapdragon x 2	2	$135
Speckled Pink	Rose x 2 Daisy x 2	2	$49
Winter Berry	Rose x 2 Holly x 2	2	$64
Autumn Night	Rose x 2 Dahlia x 2	3	$138
Autumnal Equinox	Dahlia x 2 Begonia x 2	3	$120
Blue Tulip	Tulip x 3	3	$52
Citrus Cream	Tulip x 2 Rose x 1 Daisy x 1	3	$118
Cool Contemporary	Rose x 2 Tulip x 2	3	$129
Dark Blush	Tulip x 2 Crocus x 2	3	$69
Deep Purple Dahlias	Dahlia x 3	3	$64
Marmalade Mix	Rose x 2 Dahlia x 2	3	$138
Matrimonial Alabaster	Rose x 2 Dahlia x 1 Snapdragon x 1	3	$182
Mermaid Scales	Tulip x 2 Crocus x 1 Bluebell x 1	3	$78
Mirthful Matrimony	Rose x 1 Tulip x 1 Snapdragon x 1 Dahlia x 1	3	$228
Monochromatic Pink	Tulip x 2 Snapdragon x 2	3	$90
Pink Begonias	Begonia x 3	3	$86
Pink Lace	Rose x 2 Tulip x 2	3	$129
Pink Tulip	Tulip x 3	3	$52
Powdered Blossom	Tulip x 2 Snapdragon x 2	3	$90
Red Begonias	Begonia x 3	3	$86
Regal Celebration	Dahlia x 4	3	$102
Romantic Rouge	Rose x 2 Begonia x 1 Snapdragon x 1	3	$194
Spring Meringue	Tulip x 2 Chrysanthemum x 1 Snapdragon x 1	3	$108
Starry Sky	Tulip x 2 Bluebell x 2	3	$48
Tetradic Spring	Tulip x 4	3	$84
Violet Blush	Dahlia x 2 Begonia x 2	3	$120
White Dahlias	Dahlia x 3	3	$64
White Tulips	Tulip x 3	3	$52
Yellow Tulips	Tulip x 3	3	$52
Christmas Rose	Christmas Rose x 3	4	$52
Frosted Holly	Snow Drop x 2 Holly x 2	4	$24
Funerary Alabaster	Lily x 1 Daisy x 1 Tulip x 1 Snow Drop x 1	4	$171
Morning Frost	Lily x 2 Bluebell x 2	4	$114
Pink Champagne	Lily x 2 Tulip x 1 Rose x 1	4	$237
Pink Lilies	Lily x 3	4	$135
Purple Permafrost	Snow Drop x 2 Crocus x 2	4	$42
Scenic Sunset	Rose x 2 Lily x 2	4	$195
Snowdrops	Snow Drop x 3	4	$19
Violet Frost	Christmas Rose x 2 Crocus x 2	4	$69
White Blush	Lily x 2 Rose x 1	4	$152
White Lilies	Lily x 3	4	$135
Winter’s Breath	Lily x 2 Chrysanthemum x 2	4	$138
Winter Tribute	Christmas Rose x 2 Snow Drop x 1 Holly x 1	4	$66
Birds of Paradise	Bird of Paradise x 3	5	$191
Midnight Paradise	Bird of Paradise x 1 Crocus x 1 Rose x 1 Bluebell x 1	5	$273
Paradise in Pink	Bird of Paradise x 2 Lily x 1 Begonia x 1	5	$322
Pink Orchids	Orchid x 3	5	$844
Summer Paradise	Bird of Paradise x 2 Chrysanthemum x 1 Snapdragon x 1	5	$256
White Orchids	Orchid x 1	5	$281
Yellow Orchids	Orchid x 2	5	$562

 

Don’t forget to add a vase to decorate your arrangement with! These don’t add any value to the arrangement, but they do make them more distinguishable from one another. Below is a list of all vases:

• Ruby
• Fall
• Steel
• Green
• Spring
• Summer
• Winter
• Purple
• Pink
• Pink Glitter
• White Glitter (Standard)
• Transparent
• White Gold
• Fired Ceramic
• Winter Fest
• Party Confetti
• Bird Nest
• Black

Wedding Bouquets (My Wedding Stories Game Pack)

If you have The Sims 4 My Wedding Stories Game Pack, there’s another option when it comes to flower arranging: you can make your very own wedding bouquets! The good news is that all 5 bouquets only require level 1 Flower Arranging to make them. In case you want to make your own bouquets with your own flowers, here’s a list of the 5 wedding bouquets:

Arrangement Name	Flowers Used	Skill Level	Total Cost to Make
Birds of Paradise Wedding Bouquet	Bird of Paradise x 3	1	§395
Crocus Wedding Bouquet	Crocus x 3	1	$70
Dahlia and Begonia Wedding Bouquet	Dahlia x 2 Begonia x 2	1	$248
Daisies Wedding Bouquet	Daisy x 3	1	$18
Lilies and Begonia Wedding Bouquet	Lily x 3	1	$665

Gardener Career (Seasons Expansion)

If your Sim loves to garden, or make flower arrangements, then why not make a career out of it? You could just sell your own produce or flower arrangements, but with the Gardener career, your Sim will bring a steady stream of money in. It may not be the best paid job in The Sims 4, but it’s still a pleasurable career. Your Sims get to spend time outdoors doing what they love, after all. Plus, you’ll unlock some extra social interactions and interactions on the computer. The hours aren’t too punishing either.

Note that the Gardener career is only available if you have The Sims 4 Seasons Expansion Pack installed.

The First 4 Levels

The first 4 levels of the Gardener career are straightforward enough. You just need to focus on your Gardening skill. It’s not until you reach level 5 that you have an important decision to make: do you go down the Botanist route, focusing on the scientific side of gardening, or will your Sim be more creative with flower arranging in the Floral Designer branch?

Dirt-Digger

Level: 1

Salary: §20 per hour

Work Days: Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday

Work Hours: 8am – 3pm

Promotion Requirements: Level 2 Gardening Skill

Daily Task: Harvest Harvestables

You start at the bottom as a Dirt-Digger. Not the most glamorous position, but that’s gardening for you. At this stage, you just need to get your Gardening skill to level 2.

Soil-Sifter

Level: 2

Salary: §21 per hour

Work Days: Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday

Work Hours: 8am – 3pm

Promotion Rewards: §300, Starter Fruits or Herbs or Flowers

Promotion Requirements: Level 3 Gardening Skill

Daily Task: Harvest Harvestables

Wait a minute, only 1 Simolean more per hour than the first level?! Oh well, it’s better than nothing. Plus, you’ll get your first big bonuses: a cash bonus of 300 Simoleans, plus a starter packet of seeds, if you ever need more plants. A Gardener can never have too many plants!

For the next promotion, you’ll need the next level up in your Gardening skill, at level 3.

Seed-Scatterer

Level: 3

Salary: §23 per hour

Work Days: Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday

Work Hours: 7am – 2pm

Promotion Rewards: §400, Starter Flowers, Garden Planter Box

Promotion Requirements: Level 4 Gardening Skill

Daily Task: Harvest Harvestables

Okay, so you’re making a little bit more now, but not by much. At least the bonus rewards for promotion compensate. You even get a complementary planter box to put your harvestables in! It’s an earlier start in the morning, but at least you’ll be finished early afternoon.

Want another promotion? Then you’ll need to get that Gardening skill up again, this time to level 4.

Leaf-Cutter

Level: 4

Salary: §25 per hour

Work Days: Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday

Work Hours: 7am – 2pm

Promotion Rewards: §500, Farmer Veggies & Herbs, Sprinkle-O-Matic 2001, #1 Mom Wall Decal

Promotion Requirements: Level 5 Gardening Skill

Daily Task: Harvest Harvestables

25 Simoleans per hour isn’t bad, but the job itself is probably more rewarding than the money, and then there’s the bonuses you get from promotion. However, if you want to start making a bit more money, you need another promotion in the bag, and that requires at least a level 5 Gardening skill.

As soon as you get your next promotion, you’ll be faced with a big decision: Botanist or Floral Designer? There are a few things to consider when making your choice. Botanist is more scientific, and requires you to build on your Logic skill along with your Gardening skill. On the other hand, Floral Designer has you putting together lots of flower arrangements and becoming an expert with the Flower Arranging skill. If you’re thinking in terms of how much money you make over what skills you specialize in, then Botanist pays more. Some other things to consider; Botanists tend to work later into the day, while Floral Designers have more balanced work hours. Botanists also work Monday through Friday, while Floral Designers have more varied days, even working weekends.

Whichever branch you go with is up to you, but hopefully these points above will help influence your decision. Ultimately, whatever you go with, you can’t go wrong, as they are both rewarding.

Botanist Branch

You’ve got with the Botanist branch, aka the science gardener. Not only will you continue to perfect your Gardening skills, but your Logic skill will play a big role from now on. You’ll want to make a start building on your Logic skill right away, as you’ll need to max it out to get to the very top.

As a Botanist, you’ll get access to some unique activities on the computer, including writing scientific papers, blogging about scientific findings, and applying for a scientific grant. Also, instead of Research, you’ll get the Analyze interaction on plants, which is essentially the same thing.

Plant Nerd

Level: 5

Salary: §40 per hour

Work Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Work Hours: 9am – 5pm

Promotion Rewards: §600, Cowplant Berry

Promotion Requirements: Level 6 Gardening Skill, Level 2 Logic Skill

Daily Task: Harvest Harvestables

Make sure you get on with working on that Logic skill, but don’t neglect your Gardening skill either. This is the Gardener career, after all, and gardening is still at the heart of it. After getting promoted to this level, you’ll earn yourself the rare Cowplant Berry, which allows you to grow and keep your own Cowplant! If you don’t want to have a Cowplant, it might be worth keeping it. These are very hard to come by, so you might want to think twice before selling it!

Stem Researcher

Level: 6

Salary: §45 per hour

Work Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Work Hours: 9am – 5pm

Promotion Rewards: §700, The Drifter

Promotion Requirements: Level 7 Gardening Skill, Level 4 Logic Skill

Daily Task: Harvest Harvestables

As you start to climb the Botanist branch, nothing really changes at this point, except you must keep up with working on your Gardening and Logic skills to get promoted.

Sap-Splicer

Level: 7

Salary: §70 per hour

Work Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Work Hours: 9am – 5pm

Promotion Rewards: §800, Life Under a Microscope

Promotion Requirements: Level 8 Gardening Skill, Level 6 Logic Skill

Daily Task: Harvest Harvestables

The skill levels required for promotion are getting more demanding now, so keep gardening and doing logical things.

Flower Fellow

Level: 8

Salary: §75 per hour

Work Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Work Hours: 10am – 6pm

Promotion Rewards: §900, Hooplankton

Promotion Requirements: Level 9 Gardening Skill, Level 8 Logic Skill

Daily Task: Harvest Harvestables

From this level, the work hours have shifted slightly. You’ll go into work an hour later, but you’ll stay until 6pm.

Bouquet Biologist

Level: 9

Salary: §90 per hour

Work Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Work Hours: 10am – 6pm

Promotion Rewards: §1,000, Rhapsody in Blue

Promotion Requirements: Level 10 Gardening Skill, Level 10 Logic Skill

Daily Task: Harvest Harvestables

Right, this is it – or nearly it. If you really want that final promotion to make it to the top, you’ll need to max out both your Gardening and Logic skills. You can do it!

PhD of Pollen

Level: 10

Salary: §420 per hour

Work Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Work Hours: 11am – 4pm

Promotion Rewards: §1,200, Blemish Blossom

Daily Task: Harvest Harvestables

Hooray, you did it! You’ve made it to the top of the Gardener career via the Botanist branch. Your salary will greatly increase from your last position. You’ll also have one less day of work a week, and less hours to work.

Floral Designer Branch

If you love Flower Arranging in The Sims 4, then the Floral Designer branch is your dream job. You’ll be making flower arrangements for a living, day in and day out. Obviously, the Flower Arranging skill is the new one that is introduced in this branch. Keep in mind that you’ll eventually need to max it out to get to level 10 of this career, so get started on the Flower Arranging skill if you haven’t already.

Compared to the Botanist branch, you don’t get many extra interactions with the computer or social options. You can still blog though. You’ll also be able to look for floral-design clientele, but this doesn’t do much except give your Sim a moodlet.

Petal-Placer

Level: 5

Salary: §35 per hour

Work Days: Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Work Hours: 8am – 3pm

Promotion Rewards: §550, Bonsai Tree

Promotion Requirements: Level 6 Gardening Skill, Level 2 Flower Arranging Skill

Daily Task: Craft Flower Arrangement

Now you’re in the Floral Designer career, if you haven’t yet, get started working on that Flower Arranging skill. You’ll need it at least level 2 before you get your first promotion as a professional flower arranger.

Stem Cutter

Level: 6

Salary: §42 per hour

Work Days: Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Work Hours: 8am – 3pm

Promotion Rewards: §650, Violets Are Blue Flower Arranging Table

Promotion Requirements: Level 7 Gardening Skill, Level 4 Flower Arranging Skill

Daily Task: Craft Flower Arrangement

Oddly enough, you get a free flower arranging table at this level, even though you’ll already have one from working on this skill. You can keep it just in case you need it, or just sell it.

Anther Artist

Level: 7

Salary: §60 per hour

Work Days: Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Work Hours: 8am – 3pm

Promotion Rewards: §750, Caress Wheel Barrench

Promotion Requirements: Level 8 Gardening Skill, Level 6 Flower Arranging Skill

Daily Task: Craft Flower Arrangement

Not much changing at this point, except the work days changing around a little. Don’t forget to keep working on your Gardening and Flower Arranging if you want those promotions!

Floral Organizer

Level: 8

Salary: §68 per hour

Work Days: Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Work Hours: 9am – 4pm

Promotion Rewards: §850, Starblossoms

Promotion Requirements: Level 9 Gardening Skill, Level 8 Flower Arranging Skill

Daily Task: Craft Flower Arrangement

There’s a slight shift in your work hours from now. At least you don’t have to get up so early.

Leafy Luminary

Level: 9

Salary: §75 per hour

Work Days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Work Hours: 9am – 4pm

Promotion Rewards: §950, “Blooming Beauty” Wall Painting

Promotion Requirements: Level 10 Gardening Skill, Level 10 Flower Arranging Skill

Daily Task: Craft Flower Arrangement

Urgh! Almost there! To get that final promotion, max out your Gardening and Flower Arranging skills.

Visionary of Vases

Level: 10

Salary: §350 per hour

Work Days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Work Hours: 10am – 3pm

Promotion Rewards: §1,000, Domec Floral Floor Vase, A Single Rose

Daily Task: Craft Flower Arrangement

Woo! You made it to the top! You’re officially a master floral designer. As a reward, you have one less day at work each week, and less work hours.

Gardener Chance Cards

Like a lot of careers in The Sims 4, when your Sim goes off to work in the Gardener career, there’s a chance they might get a Chance Card, hence the name. This is a random opportunity to boost your Sim’s work performance, or gain some other benefits such as money. However, Chance Cards can also go sour if you make a poor choice, resulting in a dip in your performance, so be careful! 

As it happens, there are a lot of Chance Cards you can get with the Gardener career. Below is a list of examples, and possible outcomes. 

Seasons Chance Cards

Banged Up Bonsai

The latest batch of prized Bonsai shrubs, organically-sourced from the San Myshuno grange, were damaged in transit and their normally perfect tuft of needles crushed into something not very zen. What can [Sim Name] do with these precious plants? Use them for pruning practice, or try to create compelling shapes?

Option 1: Practice Pruning

Option 2: Create Custom Shapes

Option 1 Result: [Sim Name] tried to make some custom shapes with damaged bonsais but to no avail. Somehow trying to make shapes just further damaged the bonsais. It’ll take quite some time for these bonsais to recover now. Medium Performance Loss

 

Chemical Causality

A large cannister of experimental fertilizer ruptured, soaking most of the lab’s plants in the chemical concoction. Nobody knows exactly how this will affect the plants, but [Sim Name]’s superior has tasked him/her/them to fix the situation. What will [Sim Name] do with these chemical soaked specimens? Allow the plants to grow and study the effects or apply a chemical countermeasure against the fertilizer to attempt to save the plants?

Option 1: Study Effects

Option 2: Chemical Countermeasure

Option 1 Result: [Sim Name] decided to get out a notebook instead of cleaning out the experimental substance. In just a short amount of time he/she/they noticed the plant quickly hit maturity as if it had been cared after for years. With this discovery [Sim Name]’s scientific endeavors can be measured in half the time!

 

Feed Me More, See

It is [Sim Name]’s turn to feed and milk the work lab’s resident Cowplant, Bo Vine, a craftier-than-average specimen. How will [Sim Name] approach this always-tricky task? Offer the nutritionally-approved dosage of cake or attempt to reason with it using science!

Option 1: Offer Cake

Option 2: Reason With It

Option 1 Result: [Sim Name] decided to offer Bo some cake, because everyone loves cake. Bo Vine had other plans. While [Sim Name] was offering the cake, the Cowplant used its tail to distract him/her/them. [Sim Name] looked away for just a second, and when he/she/they turned back around the cake in his/her/their hands was replaced with Bo Vine’s cake tongue. In one swift motion [Sim Name] was eaten, drained, and spit out.

 

Genetically Jinxed

A Fragile Exotic Red Nepenthes plant, known as FERN, has been kept in [Sim Name]’s facility for decades but it’s starting to wither. [Sim Name] and his/her/their coworkers have tried nearly everything they can think of aside from splicing the plant with something healthier. What does [Sim Name] and his/her/their coworkers do? Continue nurturing the plant until it recovers, or splice the plant with a healthy one?

Option 1: Nurture

Option 2: Splice

Option 1 Result: [Sim Name] attempted to nurture the plant back to health but nothing seems to be helping. He/She/They tended to it for countless hours to no avail. Maybe some plants just aren’t built to grow outside of their natural environment.

 

Greatest Grower

Local Greenthumbs are holding a “Harvest-Off,” a speed grow contest to see which horticulturist can produce the biggest and best produce. What does [Sim Name] do? Focus effort on cultivating a fruit finalist or spectate the contest for fun as a farming fan.

Option 1: Cultivate Finalist

Option 2: Spectate Contest

Option 1 Result: [Sim Name] entered the contest with confidence. His/Her/Their entry is going to be the world’s largest onion. With careful tending and horticultural secrets, his/her/their contest winning onion grew to massive proportions. [Sim Name] easily took first place and the onion caused the surrounding area to smell a bit onion-y for the rest of the week. 20+ Fun Small Performance Gain

 

Scientific Breakthrough

[Sim Name] was evaluating some new data when he/she/they noticed a pattern between petals and leaves that could change the world of botany forever. It could be risky for [Sim Name] to bring forward without the research to prove it though. What should [Sim Name] do? Does he/she/they lay claim to the discovery first by publishing a paper, or fully research his/her/their finding and risk someone else stealing the credit?

Option 1: Publish Research Paper

Option 2: Research

Option 1 Result: Charts and data points all assembled, [Sim Name] was ready to announce his/her/their new discovery so he/she/they posted it on a well known scientific investigative journal. Almost immediately after the discovery was posted, coworkers all around [Sim Name] burst out of their chairs cheering! Now, with the research already done, [Sim Name] and his/her/their colleagues need to redefine the rules for botany in which [Sim Name] just shattered. What fun!

 

Topiary Tragedy

[Sim Name] has been working on a prestigious client’s topiary exhibit all week. Tragedy struck today when [Sim Name] accidentally cut the head off the client’s favorite specimen. [Sim Name] has to act quickly – does he/she/they confiscate immediately to the client, or take a risky move and make all the topiary headless as an artistic statement?

Option 1: Confess Mistake

Option 2: Off With Their Heads

Option 1 Result: [Sim Name] confessed the mistake to the client and the client was not pleased. The client berated him/her/them for his/her/their clumsiness and decided to make a call to [Sim Name]’s boss as well. [Sim Name] was asked to leave the exhibit and go back to the store. His/Her/Their boss was understanding of the mistake and felt he/she/they had been through enough for one day. Small Performance Loss

 

Tradition Derision

A fussy customer is complaining that the arrangements available are not contemporary enough for their tastes and requests that [Sim Name] constructs a very specific arrangement for them. The customer’s design is very ostentatious, but [Sim Name]’s boss stresses that the customer is always right. What does [Sim Name] do? Follow the customer’s choice and create the custom arrangement, or push traditional values in hopes of persuading the customer?

Option 1: Customer’s Choice

Option 2: Push Traditional Values

Option 1 Result: As the saying goes, the customer is always right. [Sim Name] followed the clients instructions exactly. Even though the arrangement isn’t something [Sim Name] would normally find very appealing, the customer was quite happy with it. He/She/They just hopes he/she/they never has to make it again. Small Performance Gain

 

Work Grow Space

The garden facilities at [Sim Name]’s new workplace are impressive, but not as lovingly cultivated as his/her/their own personal space. So, what will [Sim Name] do? Follow work policy by filing a service request, or choose to tend to it before starting his/her/their tasks?

Option 1: Follow Policy

Option 2: Tend It

Option 1 Result: [Sim Name] put in a service request, as is the policy, and waited for the service to come and tend the garden. After a few hours, [Sim Name]’s boss came in and stopped instantly upon seeing the garden. [Sim Name] was then lectured for not taking any initiative to fixing the garden. It may be the policy to send a service request, but waiting idly definitely is not.

Get Famous Chance Cards

If you happen to have both Seasons and Get Famous Expansion installed, you’ll have the opportunity for even more Chance Cards. These ones are special, as they can affect a Sim’s Fame. Plus, they are entirely optional. However, be aware that these Chance Cards can result in your Sim being fired from the Gardener career, so do keep that in mind!

A Secret Arrangement

[Sim Name] is in the middle of creating a flower arrangement when the telephone rings. Turns out it’s a wedding planner… Nothing out of the ordinary in this line of work. That is, until they mention that they need [Sim Name] to sign a non disclosure agreement before they can continue the conversation. It isn’t everyday that a mysterious contract comes along when you’re working as a florist, but can [Sim Name] trust himself/herself/themself to keep his/her/their mouth shut?

Sign the NDA: Sim will gain Fame and money.

Hang Up the Phone: Nothing will happen.

 

Feed It?

[Sim Name] is stopping by the local florist to pick up some odds and ends when he/she/they notices an odd new plant tucked in among the tulips and buys it for a few Simoleons. After being unable to make it grow with water or fertilizer, the plant somehow… communicates… to [Sim Name] that it would like to be fed plasma. A drop does wonders for it. This is an amazing but dangerous plant that could bring [Sim Name] fame and fortune, but also plenty of business. Should [Sim Name] continue down this path?

Feed It!: Sim will gain Fame and money, but also become Very Uncomfortable.

Don’t Feed the Plant: Nothing will happen.

 

Trouble Underfoot

[Sim Name]’s garden laboratory has shown exceptional growth. But he/she/they has/have a secret… gnomes. It’s all thanks to gnomes! He/She/They brought an ordinary garden gnome to work one day, when suddenly it came to life and began tending to the garden. It wasn’t long before an entire family of gnomes had moved in – all of whom seemed to excel at caring for plants. It sounds crazy, but if he/she/they could prove the magic gnome’s gardening powers are real, it could change the future of botany! What will [Sim Name] do?

Publish Research on Magic Gnomes: Sim will gain fame, but will also lose reputation and get fired.

Keep the Gnomes a Secret: Nothing will happen.

Gardener University Degrees

If you have The Sims 4 Discover University Expansion, you can train your budding gardeners up so they get a good leg up in the Gardener career, either as an accomplished Botanist or Floral Designer. There are two degrees to look out for: Biology and Fine Art. Go with Biology if you want your Sim to be a Botanist, and study Fine Art if your Sim is interested in Floral Design. To further boost your Sim’s career upon graduation, consider the Distinguished Degrees. Send your Sim to Foxbury Institute for the Biology degree, and University of Britechester for the Fine Art degree.

Final Tips for Gardening in The Sims 4

To wrap up this Gardening guide for The Sims 4, here are some final tips to leave you with:

• The Freelance Botanist aspiration is perfect for enthusiastic gardeners.
• There is actually a Reward Trait in the Rewards Store called Super Green Thumb. It makes you an even better gardener and costs 4,000 Satisfaction Points.
• Sims with the Love the Outdoors trait will make the perfect gardeners.
• If you have a huge garden but are having trouble keeping track of what’s in or out of season, consider organizing your plants by season, from Spring to Winter.
• Planters are useful for keeping plants organized. Trees can be planted in these as well, but take up a whole one by themselves. It might be better to have trees free-growing.