Q. Why is that farmer so famous?
A. Because he is out standing in his field!
KingsIsle today dropped a little bit of dirt, some seeds, a bit of warm rain and a little sun into Wizard City today. On the Test Realm, Life professor Moolinda Wu is just udderly bursting with good news! Gardening has come to the Spiral, and it is the job of good wizards everywhere to plant a flower to replace every lotus blossom they pick. It’s part of the “Ravenwood Gives Back” program.
Farley, a mole in Golem Court, has the skinny on hardening. You’re gonna need a pot or some spare land in your castle. Farley has some special spells he’ll sell you. You get a few for free — the ones to inspect, revive, and plow under your plants. What you won’t get for free is the spell to prepare some ground for planting, so unless you plan to do all your gardening in pots, you’ll want to at least pick up that spell as well.
He also sells pots, if you need, and additional seeds. And tropical garden gnomes, because there are few plants which don’t grow better when a garden gnome is on the job.
Your skill in gardening is measured in ranks, starting from 1 and ending at a lofty 5. Level 1 plants almost tend themselves, but as you get higher level plants, they start bitching and moaning. Too much shade! Too much sun! Not enough water! Too much water! Too many pests! Too many gnomes! There are spells to counter all these things. If you can manage to get them to a mature stage, you can begin harvesting them for pet snacks, treasure cards and other helpful items — sometimes, even more seeds!
Gardening uses the same power pool as pet training. You gain ranks in gardening by doing necessary gardening chores, like planting and clearing. Inspecting your plants again and again (because they are just so beautiful!) doesn’t get you experience. I think there must be a faster way of getting gardening experience, though, because I could have sworn a couple people dinged rank 2 while I was chatting with Farley.
Since the gardening power pool is shared with pet training, gardening may be a free activity that everyone can do. But the real question is — can I go tend my friend’s garden?
