Gardening in The Sims 4 is a massive time sink. Honestly, it’s one of the most rewarding parts of the game, but sometimes you just don't have twelve in-game hours to spend weeding a single oversized mushroom. You want that perfect, blooming landscape now. Or maybe you're just tired of your Cowplant dying because you dared to look away for five minutes to fix a sandwich in real life.
That's where Sims 4 gardening cheats come into play.
Look, we've all been there. You start a "Rags to Riches" challenge, buy a tiny plot in Henford-on-Bagley, and realize your Sim is about to pass out from exhaustion before they even get a single onion planted. It’s brutal. Using cheats isn't necessarily "cheating" in the traditional sense; it’s more like acting as a cosmic landlord who happens to have a very powerful watering can.
Getting Started: The Secret Handshake
Before you can do anything cool, you have to wake up the game's cheat engine. This is the universal first step. If you're on a PC or Mac, hit Ctrl + Shift + C. For console players on PlayStation or Xbox, you’re going to mash all four shoulder buttons at once.
Once that thin white bar pops up at the top of the screen, type testingcheats true and hit enter.
Nothing happens visually, but the game is now listening. Without this, your gardening commands will just sit there like a dead snapdragon. It’s the foundational step for every trick we’re about to cover.
Why Move Objects is Your Best Friend
Most people think gardening is just about the plants, but it’s actually about the space. Type bb.moveobjects into that same bar. This allows you to overlap planters, tuck shrubs closer to fences, and create those dense, lush botanical gardens you see on the Gallery but can never seem to replicate.
It’s a game-changer for aesthetics. You can hide those ugly black plastic pots inside custom-built stone containers. It’s basically digital landscaping magic.
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Sims 4 Gardening Cheats for Instant Skill Mastery
Usually, you have to spend days researching gardening on a computer or talking to your daisies to level up. It’s slow. Your Sim’s social bar might go up, but their skill bar moves like molasses. If you want to skip the "Novice" phase where they accidentally kill everything they touch, you need the skill cheat.
Type this exactly: stats.set_skill_level Major_Gardening 10.
Boom. You're a master. Your Sim suddenly knows how to graft plants, take cuttings, and talk to trees with professional-grade charisma. If 10 feels like too much of a jump—maybe you still want some struggle—just swap that 10 for a 5 or a 7.
The Nuance of Grafting
Once your skill is maxed out, you can start creating the weird stuff. We’re talking about the Spliced Plants. You can graft a Strawberry onto a Daisy to get Bonsai Buds. You can graft a Lily onto a Snapdragon to get an Orchid.
But here’s the thing: sometimes the game glitches. You graft the plant, and nothing happens for days. Using the skill cheat ensures that when you do make these attempts, the success rate is significantly higher because the game recognizes your Sim as a "pro."
Manipulating the Plants Themselves
This is the part that feels like actual magic. You don't always want to type long strings of code. Sometimes you just want to click on a plant and tell it to grow. With testingcheats true active, you can Shift + Click on any plant in your garden to open a hidden menu.
Setting the Growth Stage
Under the "Set Gardening State" option, you can choose the "Growth Stage."
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- Sprouted: Just a little green nub.
- Fledgling: Getting there.
- Mature: Full-grown but not necessarily producing.
- Blooming: This is the money-maker.
If you're trying to finish a collection for the "Freelance Botanist" aspiration, this is the fastest way to do it. You can force a plant to go from a seed to a blooming harvestable in about four seconds. It feels a bit like being a god, which, let's be real, is why we play The Sims.
Dealing with Evolution
Plants in The Sims 4 have quality levels: Normal, Nice, Excellent, Magnificent, and Perfect. Usually, you have to fertilize them with expensive fish or other high-quality plants to get them to evolve.
Instead, use that Shift + Click menu again. Go to "Set Gardening State" and then "Evolution." You can instantly set your plant to "Ready to Evolve" or just jump straight to "Perfect."
A garden full of Perfect-quality Dragonfruit is basically a literal money printer. Each fruit sells for a ridiculous amount of Simoleons. If you're struggling with the bills in a large mansion, a small patch of Perfect Dragonfruit is the most efficient way to stay in the black without having a real job.
The Seasonal Struggle (Seasons Expansion Pack)
If you have the Seasons expansion pack installed, gardening gets way more complicated. Suddenly, your plants go dormant in the winter. They turn into little dirt piles and refuse to do anything until the sun comes out in the spring.
It’s realistic, sure. But it’s also annoying when you need a Pomegranate for a recipe and it’s currently a blizzard in Willow Creek.
Changing the Weather
You can use the Seasons cheats to force the world to cooperate with your garden.
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- seasons.set_season 0 (Summer)
- seasons.set_season 1 (Fall)
- seasons.set_season 2 (Winter)
- seasons.set_season 3 (Spring)
Or, if you just want it to stop raining so your Sim doesn't get struck by lightning while weeding, use weather.start_weather_event weather_Sunny_Cool.
The Greenhouse Hack
Honestly, the best way to bypass the seasons without constantly typing cheats is to build a greenhouse. But even greenhouses can be finicky about light. If your plants are still saying they are "out of season" even under a roof, use the Shift + Click cheat to "Set Gardening State" to "Blooming." This often overrides the dormant status for a single harvest cycle.
Rare Plants and How to Spawn Them
Some plants are incredibly hard to find. The Trash Fruit? You have to leave trash on the ground and let it rot. The Death Flower? You have to graft a Pomegranate with an Orchid, and that takes forever.
If you don't want to wait, you can use the Buy Debug cheat.
- Open the cheat console.
- Type bb.showhiddenobjects.
- Type bb.showliveeditobjects.
- Go to the Build/Buy search bar and type "Debug."
Scroll through the thousands of items (it’s a lot, I know). You will eventually find every single plant, seed packet, and harvestable fruit in the game. You can just place a fully grown Death Flower right into your garden.
This is particularly useful if your Sim is about to die and you need a Death Flower to bribe the Grim Reaper. It’s a literal lifesaver.
Practical Insights for Your Next Session
Now that you have the keys to the kingdom, don't just go wild. Over-cheating can actually make the game feel a bit hollow. If you have everything immediately, the "game" part starts to disappear.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Start with Skill Level 5: It gives you the ability to graft without making the game too easy. It’s the "Sweet Spot" for gameplay.
- Use MoveObjects for Layout: Focus on making your garden look beautiful. Overlap those plants. Make it look like a real, messy, overgrown backyard.
- Keep a "Seed Bank" in a Chest: If you use the debug cheat to get rare plants, put a few of them in a storage chest. That way, if a fire breaks out or a glitch happens, you don't have to type the cheats all over again.
- The Cowplant Strategy: If you're going to use cheats to get a Cowplant (Laganaphyllis simnovorii), remember to keep its hunger state in check. Even with cheats, a hungry Cowplant is a dangerous Cowplant. You can Shift + Click it to "Reset Object" if it starts acting buggy.
Gardening in The Sims 4 should be fun, not a chore. Whether you're building a massive vineyard in Tartosa or a tiny herb garden in a San Myshuno apartment, these shortcuts let you focus on the storytelling rather than the endless clicking. Get your testingcheats true ready and go turn that brown thumb green.