If you design your garden beds like the ones you can see on the store page, you're probably going to get frustrated. Thankfully, there are other options. There's also a number of little tricks to make your gardener life easier.

I've divided this guide into the different steps on the way from preparing your bed to harvesting. So if you're wondering about just one of those things, you can easily choose the relevant title in the index.

You're helpfully provided with a starting kit of tools in your mailbox (it's... a big mailbox). After that, you can buy your gardening hoes and watercans from the plant lady in the village. Later you'll want to buy 2 or 3 tools at once because apparently the metals in this world are more like cardboard. Watercans won't break, but it's nice to have a few to switch between as the water doesn't last long.

You can also craft tools, if mining and wood chopping is your kind of thing. After investing in a crafting table from the tool guy in the village. I haven't seen anyone do the math on what's more efficient, and *I'm* not the one who's going to do math LOL

There's a small chance of finding some when you pick wild herbs and mushrooms. You should also buy the ones that the plant lady sells in the village and that refresh each Monday.

In the earlier part of the game, I think it makes a lot of sense to make a daily round everywhere to pick up plants and hopefully some seeds. As you grow your garden, this is going to become less important. You are guaranteed at least 1 seed/spore per plant/mushroom when harvesting in your garden, and usually you get more.

Special seeds
Once you've saved 25 of one seed type, you can choose x's Seed Exchange to trade them for 1 seed of a rare plant.
NOTE: You can only use plant seeds for this exchange, not mushroom spores! So if you want to grow your potion business, it makes more sense to focus on plants.
You can also find those special plants (and if you're really lucky, a seed) in the wild sometimes. I think I've found almost all my wild exotic plants in the swamp area.

Drag and drop the hoe from the inventory into the tool bar if you haven't. Press the number that shows in the little box with the tool to equip it.
Find a spot that lights up blue and click or press E on keyboard to dig. I've found this easiest in 3rd person view (the default).
Optimal placement early in the game would be as close as possible to a river for watering.

To grid or not to grid?
Activating the grid (F) makes it easier to create straight rows. Without the grid you can put your plants closer together which makes watering more efficient. It also makes it more difficult to target the spots for planting and harvesting though.
I have some chaotic freehand clusters of flowers for decoration and then a space for harvest oriented planting where I use the grid.
With the grid I've found that I can water a 3x3 patch when I aim at the center, though often a few plants in some corner will need a little extra.

Note: Sometimes you'll have to move the hoe back and forth a few times before you get a blue patch.

If you have your prepared soil spots close together (as you should if you have any amount of seeds), you'll have a hard time targetting them in 3rd person view. This is why we'll switch to 1st person (press V) at this point. You can always switch back for a wider perspective to see what you're doing.
Keep in mind the categories (healing, relaxing etc.) and consider which plants you need more of.



For a functional garden that just gets the job done and delivers your potion ingredients, you'll eventually want as little variety as possible. One type per category (healing, aromatic etc.) should be enough. Like this you won't clog up your inventory too much.
I like some variety though, especially in my front yard that I don't harvest as much.

You can also plant seeds/spores into planters that you can buy or craft. Apparently these are treated as wild flowers/mushrooms for harvest drops though. So I'd recommend them just as decorations.

Here it's not so much about targeting, but in 1st person view it seems like watering is faster and more efficient. Aim at the middle of a patch (as I said, for tidy grid beds it would be the center of a 3x3 patch), press E or click + hold, and wait for the audio cues and darker colors. And then the inevitable message that your watering can needs to be refilled...
That's why you created your bed as close as possible to the river, right?


A very helpful tip I found was that the ponds you can buy in the village in the middle of each season can be used to refill your watering cans. They also look quite nice and aren't very expensive. In 1st person view, you can refill watering cans before they're completely empty.

Note: Nothing bad happens if you don't water. Things just don't grow until they get watered. I have a few patches that only grow during the rain.

If mature plants are the only thing you have nearby and it doesn't matter what you harvest first, you should be fine in 3rd person view. Otherwise, this is usually also easiest in 1st person because you can target more precisely. More true the closer you've spaced your plants of course.


If you didn't follow my advice (that I also don't follow myself) to stick to few plant species, your inventory is probably going to get full at some point. This is a bit frustrating because you can't even place storage chests outdoors.

IMPORTANT: If you go inside to store stuff in a chest, your floating goodies will disappear!!
(Yes I found out the hard way)

So you'll have to plan ahead, harvest gradually, or stay just outside the house until you've planted enough of your seeds to make space again.


Note here too: your flowers won't wilt if you leave them unharvested. So if you can afford having some just for decoration, enjoy.

- Coming soon! -

This is obviously really optional. It's also personal taste - maybe you just want to put a fence around your garden beds and call it a day. Still, here are some options.

Note on placing: As with digging holes, you can choose grid or freehand placement. Sometimes you'll have to press F to activate the preview for your object (and press again if you didn't want the grid). And as with most things in this game: if it doesn't work but it should, try 1st person view...

Ornamental beds
You can spend some extra seeds on flower beds that are just there to look nice. Or you can still harvest and replant them, of course. You could plant new seeds among the more mature plants (use freehand mode) so you can harvest the old ones while the new ones are already growing.
One of my favorites is roses on both sides of the entrance. A single one isn't very impressive, but you can plant them very close together in freehand mode.


Gates, fences, planters
These can be bought from the garden lady in the village, or crafted at the work bench you can buy from the tool guy. This pic shows the "nature" style:



Ponds
Pond man has a sales booth in the village for one day mid season (check your calendar with C). These ponds will give some character to your garden AND can be used to refill your watering cans. Place some plants around them to make them look more natural.

Paths
Paths are the only thing I've found that you can only get through crafting. Mine rocks in the cave and turn stone into stone paths.





Trees
I've seen several warnings not to bother with trees as they're not worth it for the wood. They can look nice tho. Obviously take a while to grow.
Left: cypress, right: oak.





Benches
These are a bit hidden among the interior decorations that tool guy sells, but can be placed outside. They can also be crafted.
Create a little oasis to sit down and admire your garden... In your imagination. Your character sadly can't sit, always on the run. But it looks cozy!

That's all I can think of for now. Let me know if it helped or if there's something I should add!

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Happy gardening!

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